Edwards avoids the main question

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34097, 8 March 1976, Page 4

Edwards avoids the main question

(By

KEN COATES)

The irrepressible Dr Brian Edwards side-stepped the question of whether there is life after death for man when he looked at dving on Saturday night. But. strangely enough, he did ask whether dogs had souls.

Perhaps he could be for- ' given for not coming up with anyone with first-hand experience of the after-life. But even the answers provided by the world’s major ' religions would have lightened an almost, at times, i morbid concentration on the ■ details of what happens to the lifeless body in the hands of the undertaker. One of the most interesting comments in the early part of me programme was ; that cf - the Maori commentator w.n explained that 'death was part of Maori belief. And hr; comment that men and women cry openly over the dead, that the i coffin is left open, and that the community embraces I both the dving and the dead, was a sligh indication that not all people look on death in the same way. The show is certainly intuch more cohesive than last year’s and. in taking the "tine he did. Brian Edwards was merely talking in public about the practicalities of death which people would rather not talk about The audience section of 1 the programme took a fairly 'superficial look at the last days of life dealing briefly j with just when a person i dies, loneliness and what ' was called a peaceful death, j The funeral, director came I up with one of those gems i of terminology, saying that ' death was a rns s situation. ' It was just as well he did I not add, at :hat point in time. With Brian Edwards, there .s always the feeling that he has chosen a particular topic because of its general unacI ceptabiiit.y -— that he capitalises on the iverv. helming curiosity of viewers to find lout what tubimh ’that' I dreadful man : ..dv, ards’ is :dishing up on te'ev sion. But he proceeded in orthoidox fashion to interview, rather tamely as it turned I out, the friendly undertaker. We took a look a’, coffins, lor caskets ty use the I “softer' term, discussed! 1 what happens when the blood ceases flowing and the' body begins its inevitable process of decay, and whatis done to halt that de.com-, position until the funeral ; rites are over. ■ Seldom do we get such a !close-up look at a producer! 'as when John Barningham' played corpse, but of course' lit was a matter of accept-1 lability. ) While some more informa- i ition on what a decent burial I costs would have been wel-l come, it was at least interesting to learn just what an.

i undertaker does in preparing la body for burial. And there is always the point that knowledge of this (generally helps prevent unscrupulous exploitation of death for money, as happens in other countries. The programme ended ■ with Dr Edwards's warning ■ about sensitivity seeming unnecessary. The producer had set out to take the mystery out of this subject and ■in this he and Edwards succeeded. And just when the dis- , cussion of “cosmetising” the ! corpse was becoming drearlily distasteful, an end. was! , put to it by that delightful remark By the undertaker i tljat he hoped when he died, ; a good job W'ould be done (on him. We also returned to some! good, safe sentiment at the: pets’ cemetery. Incidentally, while there is I undoubtedly a place for lam- j ipooning political leaders, the ! skit on news as Mr Muldoon! would like it was neither! funny, subtle nor particu-1 larly entertaining. TV2 is still trying tool hard with its round-the! nation format for the 6 p.m. I news. This technique is fine, | if there is a suitable subject. ■ But the brief examination) of mental illness around the! country revealed neither; regional differences to the problem, nor anything par-! ticularly newsworthy. Bob Newhart is a tele-, vision actor who describes! himself as a comedian —, why, I have never been able, to comprehend . fully. He; would be the best maker oil fatuous comments in the; business. Friday night’s episode in. his show largely concerned Emily, his wife, who makes; for much better viewing.

Si TV2 . slotted its “Dairy ol Civilisation" programme :■>>< •7.25 p.m. on Friday ant : hopefully this attractec some younger viewers Competently narrated by Anthony Quayle, the pro gramme provided a fascinat--1 ing account of the early civS'ilisation of the Assyrian ; kings and was particularly ■'informative on the early . euniform tablets that baffler I scholars. The programme was e striking example of what I can be done with soum (effects, using only drawings and sculpture as illustration. Evergreen. Selwyn loogood was back with rhe familiar formula on Satur- ' day night. Weil, at least the winner of the new electric range badly needed it, and ■ rhe winner of the cruise had not been out of the country and neither had her husband. * * Technically, "Tully" is I slick, fast-moving and full of action. As a character, the ■ ruthless insurance investigator is a nasty piece ■of work created by those with the mass television audience at heart always to ■ succeed with a capital S. Anthony Valentine, seen lin “Callan” and “Colditz” is I a natural for the role, but the programme has little to I say and even less to commend it. ; Strange as it may 7 seem. Det. Lt. Mike Stone in ■ “Streets of San Francisco," ■ comes across as a cop with ■ a heart. And Karl Malden, (who plays the role, has just the right face for the part. : In direct contrast to “Tully," this programme rests on old fashioned con- ■ cepts like faith in a human being and trust. A little too ■ trite and predictable per-T-taps, but then we ail need some reassurance at that (time on a Saturday.