New season’s new series with promise

Press, 3 June 1981, Page 18

New season’s new series with promise

Review

Ken Strongman

On Mondays there are two new series shown on One, one from TVNZ and the •other from the 8.8. C. -McPhail and .Gadsby” (the focal one) made a very good start. Last year, it must be said, they were a bit rough, and. an hour was too long. They have done well to reduce to 30 minutes: the selfconsciousness is gone and they seemed not only confident but also to be enjoying themselves. Their sketches were verytopical and they managed, as should all good satirists,. to fash out verbally in all directions, showing no favourites. • They; hit hard -at politicians, unions and even royalty (or •almost; it was' Lady Di). The highspot was a Filbertian and Sullivanian confrontation between workers and employers, and . Gadsby’s Knox ’is beginning to rival McPhail’s Muldoon. There were even shades- of Monty Python with cardboard repli-. cas of Messrs Muldoon and Rowling; at least, 'they looked like cardboard repli.cas,'And, as ever, they were very good at laying into the advertisements. What is the

F.O.L.’s secret weapon? It wasn’t perfect, but what satirical programme is? There is nothing more difficult to sustain, arid at times they slipped a little. Also, it is "just a touch disturbing that they seem best in the effeminate roles. However, the benefit of any doubt should be theirs. Over-all, it is goo'd to have “McPhail and Gadsby’’ back again. We need the sort of commentary they can make,particularly this year. It helps the’ maintenance of perspective. Next • was “Shoestring.” Under pressure, your • reviewer has been known to admit to a feeling of suppressed excitement at the promise of a new private-eye type of programme, particularly from the 8.8. C. The first epsodes of- “Callan” all those years ago were a formative experience. It is like being recpmmended an author and finding not. only that one likes him but that he has written 40 books. • At first it seemed that all would . be disappointment. The private eye himself appeared for only 30 seconds

iii the first 30 minutes. It was slow, and virtually impossible to work out ’what was going on as one. saw a succession of the usual English bit-part actors. This enigmatic and rather cumbersome start had a callgirl called to a surprising client, (who was he?), upset, driving off in the Rolls of an ex-film star radio talk-back personality -(who vyas he?) after he wouldn’t see her,' and committing suicide. Soon the girl’s estranged parents were around, Eddie Shoestring's ' barrister landlady was appearing on the radio and Eddie finds himself employed by the station manager ■ to look into things. The second half was much better, mainly because of Trevor Eve as Eddie. He is a mixture of Garbo, Dennis Weaver (McCloud), ’Azell and some ‘ grunts' clearly modelled on Clint Eastwood. Having had successful therapy in the past, he maintains.'sanity in the present by drawing searching caricatures of anyone he is speaking to. It is a disarming habit. . . ■

Eddie - looks naive but knows his way around, even in the West Country city (Bristol?) Where this is set. As the programme rolled on so it became more and more interesting. The villains were suitably grotesque and minatory, but the violence was not shown. Will this at last herald a new move in television? The plot was interesting in its resolution. The girl had committed suicide because she had been fixed up for her father. Neither of them knew the other. . . etc. And Eddie ended up being offered a job as a private ear by Radio West, in itself an interesting idea. Both “McPhail and Gadsby” and “Shoestring” have a great deal of promise. If they keep to the standards they have set -this week, there will be •90 minutes, worth of Monday evenings well looked after during the winter '