‘After Ten’ should do well in new slot

Press, 26 November 1977, Page 13

‘After Ten’ should do well in new slot

By

KEN COATES

If South Pacific Television’s “After Ten" team continues to achieve the standard it attained on Thursday night, then there will be no problem in attracting the wider viewing audience being sought by the move to prime time next year.

The twice-weekly programme is to be screened at 8.30 p.m. — a much more logical time slot for a current affairs session that has a lively, topical flavour, and is usually handled with competence and expertise. Many viewers must have either switched off or to TVI — such was the quality of the far-fetched 1967 movie, “Operation Kid Brother,” from TV2. A slick quickie with trite dialogue and prolonged action so staged it seemed to be controlled by a switch animating puppets.

“After Ten” set out to take a look at some of the human implications of

unemployment and endeavoured to see the problem as more than a disturbing set of statistics. It was well worth devoting a'large slice of the programme’s time to the subject, and the final topic, that of worker participation in industry, was a logical one to include in the programme’s framework. The interview with the psychiatrist went some way towards pointing up the serious social effect which a lack of jobs can have on young people. Adults tend to overlook the feeling of rejection that is inherent in society not having any useful work for a person who has gone through the education system. The programme took a brief look at one town’s attempt to provide some kind of training scheme — the scheme backed by Rotarians in New Plymouth. It included authoritative information on, for example, the complete

lack of apprenticeship vacancies in the carpentry trade. Gordon Dryden was his usual aggressive self when interviewing the Minister of Labour (Mr Gordon), who was justifiably called on to explain the Government’s actions proposed to counter the problem. Viewers will judge for themselves the effectiveness of his replies. Perhaps the most interesting item in “After Ten” was the examination of worker involvement in industry, based on a booklet published by the Employers’ Association. This was thoughtfully presented and as well as opinion and reactions from both unions and employers, included a look at Hellaby’s meatworks, which, significantly, has worker participation and whic, significantly, has not had a strike since 1973. There was plenty of food for thought in this item.