‘Within These Walls’ not as bad as it was

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34026, 15 December 1975, Page 4

‘Within These Walls’ not as bad as it was

( By

A. K. GRANT

If there is one thing we are proud of it is our 1 deep sense of humility. ! The ability to admit humbly that we were wrong is the most admirable of our many admirable qualities. We were {wrong about “Within These Walls.” I i When it first appeared we (had little good to say about i “Within These Walls.” “Within These Walls’.” we said, ( addressing a University Exi tension Studies Department (seminar on “Panelbeaters 'and the Media,” ‘“Within ; These Walls’ is patronisingly ; didactic, plonkingly written, (and its star, Miss Googie {Withers, makes as good a I job of the Governor as Julie ; Andrews would of Lady I Macbeth.” Since that crushing judgment was delivered (to tumultuous applause) we have watched further episodes of “With These Walls” and have found them good. The story lines are strong | and uncomplicated, there is a much greater degree of in- ; sight into human behaviour i than at first we had noticed, land although we will never Ibe pleased about the fact {that Googie Withers plays the main part we can live (with the fact. ! The gentleman who plays her husband, on the other hand, is so dreadful that he fosters belief in the exist-' ence of a Deity. Nobody as| bad as that could have been: given a role in a television; series unless it was part of; some divine plan. ( Friday night’s episode of , “Within These Walls,” about • the malicious little fantasist, . was well written, well acted, and well thought of by us. ISo there you are. We were wrong about “Within These Walls” and are pleased to pay tribute to a programme .which has achieved the un- | usual distinction of getting (better as it goes along. ; One series we were not mistaken about and have not changed our minds about is . “The Waltons.” However our i views about “The Waltons” ; are well-known, and have, > indeed, occasioned a diploi matic Note, delivered by the

American Ambassador to the new Minister of Broadcasting. We resolved the problem of “The Waltons" on Saturday night by watching “Mod Squad’’ on TV2. Not that we have much new to say about “Mod Squad.”’ either; we simply reiterate our view of it as an unchai-, lenging, not very realistic.! but well put together, and; certainly enjoyable American; crime series. .An even better example of! American professionalism; was “For Me and My Girl.” the Gene Kelly-Judy Garland! musical shown on TV2 in the afternoon. There was rather too much show-biz cliche-ridden plot, but there were some good songs and Kelly’s dancing exhibited the I fluid, graceful perfection which makes his and Astaire's musicals among the more durable accomplishments of Western civ-] llisation. ; “Norman,” TV2's pop show, came off rather poorly by comparison. Pop shows are a pretty bedraggled art form by now. “Norman” is basically just another version of “Ready, Steady, Go”! which we used to watch in London in 1965. This is not; really anybody’s fault; pop shows have to be done and there don’t seem to be any ways of doing them which aren’t derivative from! “Ready Steady Go,” just as the only way of televising {an orchestral concert is to ; point cameras at the orchestra. Furthermore “Norman" I is not aimed at ageing I trendies like us who have; I seen it all before, but at 13-j year-old trendies who; haven’t. All the same, the survival of pop shows, unaltered, into the seventies, is akin to the preservation by the D’Oyly Carte Company of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, completely unchanged, for 70 or 80 years. There is not one good thing to be said about Tommy Cooper except that his show is only an hour long and is shown only once a week. His personality is the most unengaging for any English come- ■ dian who made it to the top; ' he is the equivalent in comedy , of Edward Heath in politics. ■ And yet just as there were ; people in England who voted

for Heath there must also, in{‘ that benighted land, be people ‘ who laugh at Tommy Cooper. ] No better proof could be - offered of the eccentricity of the English, who regard Dunkirk as a victory, jellied fcels as a delicacy, and Tommy ' Cooper as a comedian. “Man at the Top” finished!] on Friday night with an un-i ! convincing scene in which Joe Lampton rediscovered his per isonal integrity during a ! memorial address for his old uncle. The device of having 1 the hero purge his own hypo-] crisy and expose that of| ( others during a public ad-; dress is far from original, and|. in Joe’s case far from con- ; vincing. Joe was successfully pre-;] sented to us throughout the! series as an intelligent, ruth-: less, self-seeking so-and-so. who knew perfectly well what he was about and where he wanted to go: for him to] throw away the chance of! more riches and greater success was no more probable (though the scriptwriters made him do it) than Miss Patricia Bartlett becoming a consulting editor of “PlayIboy.” j,