Television and Radio Miss Lumley a sweet avenger

Press, 14 July 1978, Page 11

Television and Radio Miss Lumley a sweet avenger

By

A. K. GRANT

In spite of the fact that Purdey and Gambit keep starting and finishing each other’s sentences, that Patrick MacNee is not Diana Rigg, and that the whole series depends upon the villainous enemy being not only villainous but as thick as two planks, I confess to enjoying “The New Avengers.”

This has much to do with the stunningly attractive Joanna Lumley, the girl I would most like to strip a foreign agent his cover with, or do I mean the girl that a foreign agent and .1 would most like to strip of her cover?

Presumably not, since I don’t know any foreign agents. Or do I? Perhaps lots of people I know ARE foreign agents, particularly good at their jobs. Unlike the twits the New Avengers keep meeting. Only one thing is certain. I don’t know 'Miss

Lumley. But that does not stop me enjoying her programme.

And why on earth should it? It would be pretty silly if one was. only able to enjoy programmes whose participants one knew personally. in fact, I find it very hard to see how such a suggestion could seriously be put forward. Why on earth are we debating such a ridiculous proposition? Search me. Particularly if you happen to be Miss Lumley.

It were “Poldark” noight on that there Television One on Wednesday noight, and there were a great deal of dousing the glim, Jem, and watching the wall, moi darrling, while the gennelmen roide boy.

It is all fairly much like a cross between Daphne Du Maurier and the

“Chums Annual,” but watchable for all that, unless you are seeking the definitive explication of Heidegger’s thought, or advice on how to build a set of book shelves. Part of the charm lies in the euphony of the Cornish surnames. We had a Trelawney on Wednesday night, and I even get a charge out of hearing spoken the name of the petulant George Warleggan, who sounds like the inventor of a form of Cornish military puttee. One thing that does disappoint me is that nobody ever seems to be eating a Cornish pasty. It is all very well to get local col-

our by having the waves endlessly crashing at the base of the great cliffs, but unless you cut in the odd shot of a local eating the local delicacy, then we might as well be in Wiltshire, or Barrow-in-Furness. Indeed, it all makes one begin to wonder whether Cornish pasties do, in fact, come from Cornwall. Perhaps they were invented by a man from Essex, who decided, quite rightly, that “Essex pasties” sounded rather silly. The cast are attractive, particularly Angharad Rees as Demelza (what must it have been like when she was a little girl? “Angharad, blow your nose. Angharad, stop putting Vegemite on the cat.”). Robin Ellis, as Cap’n Poldark, is a bit wooden, but one can’t deny that he is Poldark and handsome.