WE'RE VOTING FOR LATER NEWS

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33995, 8 November 1975, Page 5

WE'RE VOTING FOR LATER NEWS

In this month of elec-: tion fervour my vote is’ going to the first channel' which has the courage tot shift its main news bul-1 letin to a later time dur-J ing the summer months. 5 Even in winter it is hard i enough to organise tea,< baths and bed for the, family to see what is‘ happening in the world; at 6.30 or 7.00. In the' summer with daylight’ saving it is going to be c impossible. , 1 Even a shift to an hour: I later would make a world ofi difference. In the coming months a lot of people are; going to miss out on news.i Surely it would not be a I revolutionary move to have!

something like “Gunsmoke” ; 3t 7 p.m., followed by news jat 8 p.m. 1 On Thursday I was unable • to see either channels’ news bulletins. With a tremendous effort I did manage to make M'A‘S"H, and wondered whether the effort was worth it. The situations are wearing ,a little thin in this series. Too much reliance on the accentricities . of a few characters, in this case the [absence of Henry Blake, which allowed Frank Burns to declare the camp a dry area. Every week, too. we are treated to more and more of Klinger’s extensive wardrobe —when does he get the time for all that sewing? Still, there was one glorious scene when Frank, unknowingly wearing Hotlips’ strapless bra, signed the Order of the Day for a very

confused Radar. All the better, as it Wasn’t overplayed by Frank discovering the situation.

The whole thing though has a slight air of weariness, which brings me to “Opportunity Knocks.” Here is weariness indeed, if not for the performers who have had to wait interminable weeks for their second great chance, at least for the viewers, who have watched everyone else in-between.

Rhys Jones tries hard to whip up some enthusiasm among us, but he is losing a battle which he has never fought very hard anyway. His low-key approach to the whole thing never got him or it off the ground. This type of programme requires a compere with more oldfashioned showmanship than Mr Jones has.

Now that the final is looming up, he seems like a prisoner about to be reprieved by the parole board. As far as performers go, (Thursday night’s line-up was (about average, but it seems to me there were better ones who didn’t make it through the heats.

Perhaps it is because it was open to all age groups. An age limit or two sections might have achieved a fairer result.

The sound on the programme was poor and the Miracle Quartet who had sung well in previous appearances, were hardly audible.

The last half of “Tonight at Nine,” which was all the news I managed to see, was devoted to the results of a survey in what New Zealanders think of the immigration policies of the various parties. It was fairly predictable and probably did not raise the temperature in any of the party headquarters. The inevitable expert was on hand to point out the obvious fact that where immigraion levels were highest, public opinion was more divided. 5? sjs >5

“Beg Borrow or Steal” was a standard cops-and-robbers tale of the heist from the over-protected museum. This time the twist was that all the robbers were handicapped in some way. It was, however, the only thing which lifted the programme from the banal. I would like to think it was made from a genuine desire to highlight the plight of the handicapped and to show that they are far from useless to society, but by using two actors who are well-known for their roles in other series, the makers rather wrecked that illusion. Unknown actors would have had more impact.—M.C.