‘On the Mat’ put on the mat

Press, 28 May 1981, Page 15

‘On the Mat’ put on the mat

revv

Ken Strongman

“On the Mat" should be off the air,. The reasons for this are almost too many for one review to embrace. However, they are sufficiently compelling that the attempt should be made. Television programmes are aimed at educating, informing, and/or entertaining. Clearly, by no stretch of even the most lurid imagination can “On the Mat” be regarded as informative or .educational. It must therefore come within the entertainment category, unless it is regarded as sport, which, in itself, is viewed as something more (or less) than sheer entertainment.

Sport revolves round competition based on skill, speed, strength and judgment.

The ridiculous antics of the protagonists in "On the Mat” involve none of these because they must be choreographed with the same precision as Kenny Everett’s naughty dancing girls. Otherwise. the so-called wrestlers would die or be hospitalised each week. In time, replacement would become problematic.

If sport is not involved, “On the Mat” can only be sheer entertainment, which should be amusing, enliven-

ing and, on occasion, even edifying. It is horrifying rather than amusing, stultifying rather than enlivening, and grotesque rather than edifying. It cannot therefore be entertainment.

At this point, you may well be thinking: “Ah, he’s argued himself into a corner; ‘On the Mat’ can’t be classified as a television programme and yet there it is, every Tuesday.” Exactly; that is the problem. What is it aimed at? One can only conclude that it is aimed at demonstrating the depths of stupidity, inhummanity, brutality and crudeness. Perhaps it is meant to portray the lowest common denominator of television, so that the remainder will seem the greater by comparison. Take what has been happening for the last few weeks.' One of the main baddies speaks of a “heart punch” with which he typically kills people. The other, showing the whites of his eyes, speaks of death and destruction.

In their carefully orchestrated way, they (apparently) stomp, kick, punch and club the goodies to a painful stop. Eventually, this all becomes too much for the chief goody who clambers into the ring

in his street clothes and either throws them out or beats them over the head with a chair or his shoe.

Were- this not to be rigged, there would be blood, contusions and even more horror than is already the case. Normally, there would also be brain damage. Entertainment? How can anyone find such unutterable rubbish entertaining? It is revolting; degrading and inhuman, disgusting and contemptible. All that it can possibly promote in anyone who leaves it on by accident (surely no-one chooses to watch it) is violence and even psychopathology. Certainly, anyone who emulated what it portrays would be either locked up or treated. Who knows what the risk of this might be in the studio audience? It should be removed from our living rooms and from Canterbury Court.