More promise than fulfillment

Press, 24 April 1980, Page 15

More promise than fulfillment

POINTS OF VIEWING

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FELICITY PRICE

Usually, Tuesday nights can be relied upon to provide an entertaining night in front of the telly. By switching from snobs to slobs programmes, several hours of continuous, rea-

sonable viewing can be obtained — which, under ' the new scheme of things, has become quite a rarity. But this Tuesday turned out to be something of a disappointment The programme promised all, but delivered little. Gail, in “Close to Home” might have been rescued from the clutches of the massage parlour, but her mother still doesn’t know. So that should be good for another couple of episodes at least, judging by the way the script writers spin out each little contretemp and misdemeanour. Hard on its heels was the final episode of "Secret Army,” an excellent, if somewhat harrowing, programme which, if you nave the stamina and concentration, has provided some admirable viewing. Its trailers this week suggested that the final epii sode would hold tremendous excitement, but in the end, nothing happened.

The Englishman slipped over the border with little trouble, and the German’s search of Brussels was a fizzer at the cafe, thanks to the timely, if somewhat incredible, intervention of the invalid, who chose that very moment to fall down the stairs andl snuff it.

“Eye Witness,’’ which usually turns up trumps at least once a week, was a total disaster.

An attempt; to discuss the situation in South Africa with a businessman who would not be drawn on the subject of apart theid, but who was clever enough to agree and yet disagree at the same time with the bewildered interviewer, left the impression that either the "Eye Witness” team had not done

its homework properly be» forehand or the interviewer was not capable of handling the impasse she appeared to have reached. She just gave up, and then the ads came on.

The second half of the current affairs programme was little better. It ’ followed the popular, but quite unsatisfactory, technique of ‘'talking heads,’’ bringing two well known pntiapartheid proponents into the studio to debate the issue with the visiting South African:

Nobody contributed any-< ■thing of great moment,

nothing new was said, and, as usual, the discussion was ended just as it was wanning up. But its conclusion was no loss to the viewer. Archie and Edith Bunk-

er, in a final episode of ' “All in the Family,” were another disappointment. As a rule, this programme is a fine example of bathos, a good mix of humour and sorrow,' with Archie generally being brought into line. But in this episode, there was little humour and an awful lot of schmaltz. And finally, when I switched to “Radio with Pictures” after the 10 pjn. news, all that was left

was 13 minutes of a very old film of a very old group from the early seventies. Lynnrd Skyhnrd’ (excuse the spelling, but it looks something like that; I never could get it right) were good in their time, but they sound very passe jn the eighties. What happened? Did they put in an old clip to fill in the space of a film that didn’t arrive on time. Or is the new host of “Radio with Pictures” : into nostalgia?

If the ordered disarray of his tie was anything to go by he’s still living’ in the fifties. ’