Channels soon got back to normal

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34132, 20 April 1976, Page 4

Channels soon got back to normal

Having disposed of Easter relatively early in the day, both channels settled down to the usual Sunday evening fare. With the exception of the glossy American Music Awards—which spared us “Country Calendar”—TVl stuck to its ordinary format; and so did TV2. Not that I think there should have been any radical alterations but both stations altered Friday’s viewing considerably, presumably as it was Good Friday, and having got it all out of their systems, left Sunday as it was. The prestigious (to the nominees and winners at least) American Music Awards for 1976 were very similar in presentation to the Academy Awards seen a couple of weeks ago, and incidentally pre-dated the latter. After all there is not much else a producer can do with a parade of people coming up to receive what looked like perspex pyramids, one after another. If you had no knowledge of the people or music represented, this programme would have been a complete waste of time, and probably for those who could appreciate it, it was far from satisfactory. Too much time was given over to introductions and awards, and, as with the Academy Awards, a great deal of the entertainment segment of the show had been edited out. The most entertaining parts about the whole programme were the sight of John Denver forsaking his

casual gear for a bi-centen-nial type evening outfit, with quite the largest bow tie, and the apparently overwhelmingly popular Olivia Newton-John, who looked exactly like one of those Cindy dolls. Her shiny look was incredible. Incredible, too, was the tribute paid to Irving Berlin, performed by an equal number of black and white performers which looked like the minstrels gone mad. The best bits were Berlin himself wavering through some of his own hits. # # sit The dramatisation of Somerset Maugham’s "Cakes and Ale" has come upon us unheralded and unsung. Apparently this was one of the 8.8.C.’s minor excursions into literature and only required three parts to tell the story. For all that it is extremely entertaining. On the surface it is the story of the marriage of Rosie Gann, Barmaid, to Ted Driffield, Novelist, and of her various affairs. The story is seen, however, on three levels: the one which Driffield’s proposed biographer, Rear, played excellently by Peter Jeffrey, wishes to see; the second as seen by his second wife, Amy, who wants to gloss over the years with Rose; and the third as it really was, seen by Willie Ashenden, played with wry wit by Michael Hordern. These three themes are played out with good editing and direction. The glimpses of the Kentish countryside are perhaps too few now that the action has shifted to London, but in the first episode there were some delightful views of Kent, no doubt the result of much hard work in finding just the right places, on the part of some member of the production team. «s # Although I saw only part of "Choice,” Sunday night’s play in the Seven Faces of Women series, it did not impress. It seemed a very trite story, and while it was competently acted it required no great ability to interpret. As usual TV2’s late news was a satisfactory round-up of the day’s news, complete with local film. In this respect they are usually more thorough than TVI at the week-ends, and Angela d’Audney has proved a reliable addition to the TV2 news team. One of the night’s most interesting programmes was "Aquarius; Cokham to Calvary." Introduced by Humphrey Barton, whom Benny Hill likes to parody, this was a programme on the artist Sir Stanley Spencer, who spent much of his eccentric life in the Thames village of Cookham. Seen through the recollections of people who knew him, not least his delightfully frank cousin who said he didn’t look fit enough to drive a sheep up the street, as well as in his own words, Spencer emerged as a true individualist. A bonus was the generous views of his paintings and drawings. This was another programme which would not be everybody’s cup of tea, but those who watched it had a rewarding 40 minutes. * * ss Those who stayed with TV2 would have seen the equally rewarding local pro-

duction of the Menuhin Orchestra in the Town Hall, playing a Vivaldi Concerto Grosso. Good camera work and good sound made this a short but sweet ending to the evening. If you preferred dance TVI had an equally interesting programme on one of the foremost American modern dance companies, that of Paul Taylor. While modern dance owes something to the ballet tradition it is now an art form in its own right and this programme showed how exciting it can be.— MARGARET CHAPMAN.