Smooth and smug

Press, 19 August 1977, Page 11

Smooth and smug

By

KEN COATES

Television One’s all-male panel for “Beauty and ths Beasts” is an excellent idea — the long-term success of which afternoon viewers will judge by the worth of the advice freely handed out.

Yesterday’s discussion of letters sent in from viewers was chaired by the actress, writer and radio producer, Davina Whitehouse, and it

all went smoothly — too smoothly, perhaps. Why was it, for example, that everyone had lovable mothers-in-law, that there was little first-hand experience (except for the Rev. Bob Scott) with people who had been pressed into the so-called “baby-bashing syndrome?’’

The race relations conciliator, Mr Harry Dansey, gives a refreshing viewpoint from his Maori background, bm there does seem to be a certain sameness about the comfortable formulas for solutions as well as the comments made by othei panelists.

lan Johnstone, TVI reporter. is generally down-to-earth, but Mr Richard Higham, deputy director of the Business Development Centre at Otago University, tends slightly towards the precious. Remember that letter from the mother whose child had grazes, small cuts and bruises when she took it to the hospital? “I hope,” advised Mr Higham. “that it won’t have any tell-tale bruises next time it is taken to the doctor.” Well, I ask you. Yesterday the panel wore its air of authority with assurance. It would be more heartening, and perhaps more informative, to see signs of more fallibility among the male quartet.” Are they perhaps just too aware of their largely female audience? It certainly would not be so measured and tidy, but it would make for a more lively show if panel members disagreed with each other more often, questioned attitudes and generally came up with the kind of answers that incorporate sound common sense and practical experience. But with the exception of Harry Dansey, all members of the panel come from the same kind of background in society, and this possibly explains the rather uniform shape of answers to questions.

The range of subjects covered was reasonably wide. The query’ from the woman who had a problem about which end of a garage was the front was tailor-made for the studied, “bright” comments suitable to launch the show. The letter from the Otago mother whose son had undergone a sex-change operation and who had now returned to the small town where she lived “after the death of a man ‘he’ was once engaged to.” seemed almost too revealing to be true.

Then there was the letter from Tokoroa. which was really an extract from a school newsletter, and conemed an area about which the panelists (except Harry Dansey) knew little. And really, who w lan Johnstone kidding when he generalised on Kiwi tolerance? Mothers-in-law and “babv-bashing” completed the range of topics. In its publicity, TV] would have us believe that “hordes of letters are sent in by people seeking advice and information.” Yesterday’s show left a sneaking suspicion that TVI in Dunedin would welcome more. That P.O. Box number is 474.