Is there anyone home?

Press, 1 September 1980, Page 17

Is there anyone home?

Review

John Collins

Most of the space usually occupied by “Ready to Roll” One) was filled on Saturday bv Ex-Beatle Paul. McCartney and a fawn cavalry-twill trouser leg capped by a lime-green suede bootette. There was also a sock involved, but the texture and colour of this did not impress themselves upon your reporter’s memory.’ The owner of the limb involved inf the- interview, whose name has suffered the same fate as the sock, was shown in full once or twice in half an 'hour as he tried to bring ex-Beatle Paul McCartney out. The difficulty about attempting this with ex-Beatle Paul McCartney is that it has never been ascertained in> his case whether there is actually anybody in. Depending on point of view, it is either gratifying or disappointing that ExBeatle Paul McCartney has .remained outstandingly ordinary .despite • wealth and fame. After an interview with ex-Beatle. Paul McCarh ney the viewer has. even less of an idea of what ;exBeatle Paul McCartney is about than he had before it. Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney has retained the boy-next-door image. The question remains, next door to what? Any doubts about whether there was anybody at home while the bodies of entrants

in “Miss New Zealand” (One) paraded their wares was taken care of by a new Ansafone system ' whereby potted personality r resumes were broadcast over the Tannoy when prospective Ambassadors for Their Country wobbled. up and down the!catwalk. \ ' “Ballet takes up much of my life, although I manage to find time ■ to watch the t e 1 e vision programme, ‘Dallas’,’’ said one of the pre-recorded sales pitches as its owner worked her way uphill towards the salivating camera. All that; and “Dallas”, "too.' I lift weights and have never missed an episode of “The Streets of Sari Francisco;” Come to me, woman of my dreams. We shall . watch a mutually agreed programme,' perhaps “Dukes of Hazzard County,” and do calisthenics the Choysa ads., -; • ■■ As with all television programmes,- . reaction to’ this ritual depends on : the state of. mind of the reviewer and the company in which the

programme is watched. Usually the competition seems pathetic and rather funny. Watched in the company of a libber,, it became degrading and an insult to womanhood. Some of the insults to womanhood had rather good bods.

As the winner teetered the hardboard in triumph it was clear that she was very, very proud of the opportunity to be an ambassador for her country. Asked how she felt, she said: “Very, very proud to be an ambassador for my country.” She had much better legs than Frank Gill, too. This year the difficulties faced by competitors were even harder. Usually the prospective Queens need only concentrate on not getting trapped in their cleavage, not getting lipstick on their teeth, and not forgetting to say how one day, having travelled as an ambassador for their country, they would like to settle down and run a home for handicapped refugee orphans, for which their training as a receptionist would be ideal. This year they had the added difficulty of reading out a six-figure number, one of the list of winners of some lottery or other. They coped regally. Maureen Lipman, wh 0 plays Jane Lucas in “Agony” (One), is a bigger

argument against the Barbiedoll antics of the, Miss New Zealand wobble than all the libbers’ hisses. She is both knobbly-faced and very sexy, which 'is encouraging. Correspondence about the outrageous suggestion that a man should consider a woman sexy should be sent to the usual address.

“Agony” is marvellous not just'because of a tight and funny script; it has broken away from the assumption still held in most other situation comedies that some variation or other of the Ben Travers farces of . the Aldwych years is Still funny. British situation comedies have usually been well written and performed but distinguished by <a slib-Rotarian wetness, evident from,“Man About i the House” through “The Best of Families” to “George and Mildred.” The assumption that life consists of pursuing the attainment of suburban euphoria and that the domestic hiccups and misunderstandings along the way are the sole stuff of humour, is absent from

“Agony”, and welcomely so has brought into television comedy an unnoticed and large section of the population that has traditionally been disenfranchised. This is not to say that : there will not always be a time in one’s life for ballet and “Dallas'.” .