DAVE ALLEN MAKES WELCOME RETURN

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33929, 23 August 1975, Page 5

DAVE ALLEN MAKES WELCOME RETURN

Dave Allen could charm the birds out of the trees. No, he couldn’t. Yes he could. Dave Allen is very funny and his jokes justifiably take the mickey out of pompous institutions like the churches and the army. Allen is irreverent, rude, drinks too much and is a bore. This kind of argument can' go on for ever because humour is a very personal thing. It is all bound up with how a person was brought up. parental attitudes, religion, education. and occupation.

Whatever individual I viewers might think of Dave!l Allen, most would agre* hep is a vast improvement overp Les Dawson. Television Two has made the right decision, in giving Les the axe. Let’s!, hope he stays away. In spite of the first of the' Allen series being made by the BBC in 1973, the programme does not date. The show succeeds on several counts. Full scope is given Dave’s soft Irish! blarney and his gift for; characterisation and telling \ stories. | He would have our backs! up if he merely appeared to i swill his way through thei programme, but Dave Allen, imitating a drunk is | delightful. And he just manages always to retain the humanity of his drunk without reducing him to an (incoherent wretch. The psychologists say that .one important ingredient for a satisfying life is variety. It is certainly a factor in the success of the Dave Allen Show. Each sketch lasts only a few fleeting! (seconds, long enough for the) point to sink in and for i viewers to respond (if it makes it). Each is followed hard on' [its heels by another, and the show is never allowed to drag. How about the way in which Dave Allen pokes fun at religion? As he points out, without religion there would be a big gap in his ; programme. But Dave gets away with lit. He does not tilt at the ' basics such as faith, belief, or God. Yet there is a nice sharp , edge to his thrusts at practices, traditions and church rules. And as he (commented in his show Jews, Protestants and i Catholics could all laugh at -themselves and their I religion. i Dave also seems to 1 provide just the right twist ■ to his religious quips. For ; example, who can imagine a 1 Jew harbouring an SS •officer anyway, or a .swearing nun for that ■ matter? Maybe though, Dave does > not go down so well in • Northern Ireland, where, 1 more’s the pity, religion • does not in any way seem to be a laughing matter.

Television Two’s “Points: South” shows signs of a! welcome hardening ini content. Thursday night’s offering; ■included an interesting itemj on rent increases backed by; interviews containing the facts. An attempt was also' made to explore the reasons: for slips on the lower slopes, of the Port Hills, and the need for local body co-1 operation was underlined. The Rev Bob Lowe made one of his rare appearances talking about the strength ’and power of God in relation to storm ravages. As the weather has been entirely unsuited to his daily i lunch-time addresses, it was appropriate for the Wizard Ito be given a spot for a idose of his rapid-fire wisdom. — K.C. —