Quite different types of civil servant

Press, 2 September 1981, Page 19

Quite different types of civil servant

Monday evening prompted comparison of the various types of life it is possible to lead in the service of one’s country. New Zealand’s very own sitcom “Gliding On’’ has begun a new series. Roger Hall has the stereotype just right again and the characters will no doubt appeal to anyone who has worked in a government department. The point is laboured though. By now, even the most naive of us know that public servants don’t do any work and nor do they have a good line in repartee. This theme can’t support many programmes before it becomes very boring. It is the sort of writing which relies on the audience

cracking up every time there is an “ah jeeze” or “youse jokers.” Which is a pity because Roger Hall is better than that. But home grown series must be encouraged, so let's think positively. The clothes were just right; studiedly terrible in cut, style and colour. Events of importance to the characters were also spot on: gossip, fire drill, and giving up smoking. It could be any organisation, anywhere. There were appropriately topical comments and just the right amount of sitcom silliness. So, “Gliding On" is harm-

less and will strike appropriate chords in just enough people to be regarded as successful. However, it would

be interesting to know what the response is when the attempt is made to sell ii abroad. Puzzled frowns will be the order of the day. The contrast with the final episode of “The Sandbaggers” could not have been greater; a rather different type of public service, this. Men in suits make decisions, men in safari jackets sandbag, and women know their place, which is to function as the occasional life support system for the men in suits. The strange thing about these portrayals of the cloak-and-sandbag world is that no-one is ever content with what is happening, at any level. No-one does anything right in anyone else’s eyes. Just like “Gliding On,” but in the S.I.S. they are all deadly, humorlessly serious about it. This raises an awkward

thought. If their world is really like this, then what is it all for? What would they do if everything were running smoothly? There would be no-one to be annoyed with and therefore nothing left to do. Perhaps this is the idyllic state they are all working towards. The “Sandbaggers’’ series has steadily improved; in the later episodes it ‘ has even been possible to have a glimmer of understanding into what is going on. It is intricate, detailed and heady, and actually requires a little thought — which makes an important change from the passive acceptance, or resistance, which is provoked by many of the current television offerings. However, the writers have run out of ideas. Too many plots have been hung on the single point of Burnside’s job being on the line. The reason, of course, is that he is a patriotic maverick of integrity and perspicacity. Which

Review Ken Strongman

means that there has been very little character development.

Burnside remains clever, cunning and severe, will go to the wall for sandbaggers, and is an unkind bully to his secretary, just as he was in episode one. Given a choice, I'd sooner be in the “Gliding On” public service than in the world of secret intelligence. Imagine having to have all important conversations when walking in the bugless seclusion of crowded streets. Imagine no New Zealand week-ends, and no time for coffee. Life is all severity. Now "The Sandbaggers” has finished and there is no plan for another series, an important point can be made. At no time were Burnside and his men portrayed as producing lists of subversives and radicals in protest movements for their prime minister. And I don’t think that they would have done so if they had been asked.

Terry Herbert (above), an Aucklander, will present “A Dropa Kulcha,” for the new

series beginning on One today. Terry has a passsion for all types of music, including classical as well as contemporary. He has worked for several years in radio, both in announcing and production work doing “character” voice overs. He is presently working for an independent film-mak-ing company in Auckland, and is widely travelled.