Useful save by Dave Allen

Press, 3 February 1979, Page 11

Useful save by Dave Allen

The Collinsian proposition that television was invented not to entertain or to inform but as a machine to channel away the hatred and contempt that might otherwise destructively be showered on innocent friends, relatives, or passing doorstep evangelists, has certainly received much support from television programmers in the last couple of months. Fortunately, I have missed the last month of this exercise in contempt for the viewing public, having spent January as visiting professor at the Logie Baird Institute of Television and Other Disorders of the Digestive Tract in Stockholm, where

I lectured on the subject: “The Scotchbrite advertisement (Tong-lasting like the major, eh, lassie?’) and sexual stereotyping in Inverness rural communities.” But to return to the

By

JOHN COLLINS

New Zealand screen on Thursday evening was to be instantly reminded of the two channels’ policies, which seem to be based on two. assumptions: (a) Nobody watches television; and (b) Anybody who does watch television

is not worth worrying about, or, in view of assumption (a), does not actually exist, being an illusion, a. trick of the light caused by the flickering of the shadows of the fourth re-run of a 1950 s B movie

on the patterned fabric of a deserted armchair.

The “Dave Allen Special,” made in Australia, was the highlight of the evening’s viewing, hardly filling the. watching heart with joy but pleasingly acceptable all the same.

rather like a reasonably preserved saveloy found lurking in the corner of an otherwise empty fridge. Allen somehow manages the difficult job of being both urbane and Irish, and his excellent low-key delivery of a seemingly endless supply of jokes on one theme continues a high-wire act in comedy from which one might reasonably have expected him to fall years ago. But the religious jokes keep coming, and they keep working.

Although there was, of course, little audience participation in the show, one felt conscious most of the time that Allen was playing to a roomful of Aus-

traiians, and one felt some sympathy for these people in their polite efforts to understand the jokes, particularly since most of them were quite subtle. There was an interesting ocker segment with Larry Pickering, the brilliant cartoonist of the "Australian’’ newspaper. (You remember him, he was the one who looked as if he’d just fallen off a trail bike, and who kept saying "bloody” and “bugger” in case anyone thought he was queer or something.) His caricatures were superb. The late news threw up an interesting interview with Sir Magnus Pyke, this week’s Overseas Personality Visiting New Zealand. Pyke is a dynamic man, all waving arms and rolling head. It was pleasing to see that he has not become embittered by his failure to secure the part of the major in the forthcoming remake of the Scotchbrite advertisement (“Long-lasting like the professor eh lassie'?”) in spite of his uncanny resemblance to the great Scot.

Pyke was in Auckland talking about nutrition. Asked what he considered a balanced diet he expounded: “Oh. perhaps some meat and potatoes. A bit of bread and butter perhaps. Some milk occasionally. Some fruit and vegetables. That sort of thing.” It was worth flying him out for those words of wisdom alone. Truly great. Sir Magnus, and, no doubt, long-lasting.

POINTS OF VIEWING