Keeping up summer spirits

Press, 27 February 1981, Page 11

Keeping up summer spirits

It was still dark, then, of course. The night was as cold as the nights always were: there, in that place, at that time. In countless viewing capsules tired men and women went through the drab rountine that had come to mark their lives for the past three months.

For the lucky ones a last cup of Choysa the long vigil of the night. Others, overwhelmed by the lethargy’ of the siege, had stopped their regular provisioning, many o,f them reduced to sucking on the tongue of a disused tramping hoot as a bedtime snack.

Many had saved a last pot of Choysa to use on themselves and their loved ones if the strain became too great. W h e n the mood changed, it is hard to be precise, now. I was up on the roof of the main Points of Viewing sum-mer-viewing redoubt comforting the men, keeping •their spirits up, that sort of thing, when I first became aware of a change. At first, I rejected the idea, as I had many times. The worst thing I could have done would be to get my people’s spirits up and then see them plunge further into the abyss than they had been before.

My own spirits were low.' and the beer had been cut weeks back. I was still depressed, as I always was, from watching “Jokers ' Zild.” Barry Cryer’s last spurious laugh rir.-':g again and again through my head as 1 made my rounds. It was young Tomkins who spoke up as I comforted him, the wisdom of the young breaking through the adult fog of doubt, etc., etc., that sort of thing.

“Sir,” he said, his voice a little shaky from awe at the splendour of my viewing robe and perhaps from the memory 7 of the Fuzzywuzzy spear thrust that had entirely’ removed his he 1 five years before. “Sir, did you watch tele tonight?”

“Did I watch tele?” I replied, not entirety rehetorically (the spirits were not entirety cut) slylymoving my remaining good hand to the haft of m; pistol in case he, like the others, had been driven to insanity by the C.S.B. Payline ad. “Is the Pope a Catholic? Do shepherds watch flocks by night, all sleeping on

the ground? Of course I watched tele. Wednesday, wasn't it? Load of old rubbish. Same as the other nights. They give up in the summer, see. 'Summer season.’ they call it.” “Is it always like this then, sir?” asked Tomkins. "Yes, it is., lad. I've through a few summer seasons now, lad. Quite a few. Always the same. They say they do it because the audiences are low. but the fact is, the audiences are low because there is nothing to watch. Can’t win, lad. Omdurman was the same. And Mafeking. Mind you, we won both those in extra time. All I can suggest is patience, lad. patience.” “She’s got a steady boyfriend, sir.” said Tomkins. “But, really, sir. what did you make of the advertisements for The New Season?"

My heart leapt up. It does that, sometimes. “You heard if, too, lad?” “I do wish you wouldn't call me ‘lad,’ sir.” “I’m sorry. I thought it gave the whole thing a period, military flavour. You heard it, too, Geoffrev?”

“Yes, I did, sir.” “I do wish you wouldn't call me ‘sir’.” "I’m sorry. I thought it went with your calling me lad. Period, military flavour and that. Anyway, I did see the advertisements. I did. It said we would soon have programmes again, sir. real programmes, with characters and plots and interest and all that sort of thing. Dramas and series about space and new plays and current affairs. Films we haven’t seen several times before. Oh. sir. won’t it be marvellous? It’ll be just like having a real television service.”

My heart . leapt up ay 'a. 1 made a mental note to get ' fixed. So, ycung Tomkins had seen the advertisements for The New Season, too. I had dismissed it all as a figment of my imagination, an imagination scarred by years of summer seasons..

Soon "Bruce and More Girls” would be a sad, sick memory of the past. We ".ould pick up the threads of our viewing again. Reviewers would not have to resort to limping parody.

“Sir,” said Tomkins, as word cf the impending New Season passed along the line and my people exploded into joyous huz_ahs and anything else that was available. “Sir, when all this is over, is there anything you think you will regret?" "Yes, I "think there is, Geoffrey,” I replied. “I'm not happy with that joke about patience.”

F— Review fjehn Collins