Whicker winds up another series

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33453, 7 February 1974, Page 4

Whicker winds up another series

Whatever else might be said about television’s international traveller, Alan Whicker, must be admitted that he is a superb showman. It is not so much what Whicker says or does himself that commands attention, but rather his knack for digging up that little piece of extra information and exploiting a situation to the full.

The final episode in the series, “Whicker's Orient,” was a good example. He not only had viewers fully aware of what was involved in swimming the dangerous stretches of water between mainland China and Hong Kong, but we also took a look at what happened to some of the refugees from communism.

Countless stones have been written about the courageous Chinese who have escaped to freedom, but little has been said about the effect of a highly competitive existence in a big city on young idealistic people used to a healthy, rigorous rural life. The programme. “Anthill.” hardly scratched the surface of what life is really like for the majority in this swarming colonial outpost. But we were given some strong pointers. At least Mr Whicker and his cameras ventured to the walled city of Kowloon for a glimpse of the degrading conditions in ‘''is refuge of bandits and drug -ushers. The visit to the “dying house,” where the dead lie waiting for permission to be transported for burial to the mainland, was a deft finishing touch. Alan Whickers journeys may not always provide a true and balanced record of what a place and its people are really like But at least his programmes ere interesting and colourful, and spiced with the unusual or bizarre. To provide this is, after all. the task of a showman. $ (} $ "Elegy for a Vampire” in the "Ghost Story ’ drama

(series proved disappointing. ’Having a college professor [turn vampire at night among, the tombstones seems a i happy enough basis for any ghost story, but something went wrong. The main problem seemed jto be the failure of the producer to come up with an ! atmosphere of terror. Another beautiful co-ed., would be jfoully murdered yet the only, response on campus was a half-hearted vigilante patrol decided on by the staff sit-! Ting around as if at afternoon tea. Even wierd background! music and yards of film in I the murky night failed to set; the stage and bring on a [chill. This series is hardly; worth sitting through. Why the comedy series,j M.A.S.H. should continue to! be slotted late is difficult to! ’understand. And presumably! we will miss it altogether; when the transmission re-1 istrictions come into effect. The whole approach of |M.A.S.H. is based on a healthy disregard for protocol and ballyhoo. And the basis of the episode. "To Market, To Market," was of course ■the black marketeering that ’seems to have been an inevitable part of United States! military endeavour. Surely M.A.S.H. can be; i screened earlier in the! ■ weeks ahead—there are; plenty of other programmes; that would not b~ missed. —K.C. | Soccer.—Results of British matches —English league, division' 3: Oldham 2. Tranmere 0. Scottish F A Cup. third round tsecond re-playi: Stranraer 3 St Mirren 2.