A blister for a public body

Press, 13 November 1981, Page 11

A blister for a public body

Review

Douglas McKenzie

A Wednesday night on TV m ay promise innocent enough experience but beneath the surface can well be horror galore. This week, on One alone, there was a threatened suicide on quiet “Coronation Street,” Rodney Bryant’s horizontally striped tie on “The Mainland Touch,” gas warfare and genital herpes bn “Close Up,” a dead cat and a.poisoning of sorts on "The Gentle Touch” and, of course, the party political broadcasts. Of these, the herpes was actually the least, horrifying 'because it was spoken about rather than visual, and might just as well have been on radio. As a matter of fact it was a very good item for all the information it contained, even though it had to affect only a tiny proportion of the population. By showing street scenes the programme made the

point that you just don’t know yho you are passing on the footpath with some terrible hidden problem. The trouble with seeing too much TV is that you simply do not know what other people are thinking of you as they see you passing on the footpath. It was probably James Thurber who said that he had been told more about genital herpes than he wanted to know. It was almost a relief to find out that mustard gas could bring people up in skin blisters as well. And the Australian authorities for 1944 got a real ticking off, too. “Coronation Street” has got the complete knack of leisurely exploration of a matter.' It is not much' use tuning in for, the odd look, expecting that three themes will all be started and concluded at the one episode.

Weeks ago, in TV time, Deirdre Langton had this encounter with this rotter, and the implications are still flowing. There is little chance that the viewer who joined into this sub-plot is going to be able to relinquish the programme again until all the consequences for Deirdre are cleared up. Those who say they never watch “Coronation Street” have either never tried even one episode or they sit with the blinds drawn. A surprising amount is contained in “The Gentle Touch,” a programme which does conclude its stories episode by episode, making it a series rather than a serial. It is very hard, though, to warm to Jill Gascoine, who must be one of the most leavable (“I can take her or leave her alone”) actresses on the screen today. She is surely very lucky to have

landed this lucrative series. It is a matter of personality, and, while it is conceded at once that this invokes purely personal preference, it is extremely difficult to understand what Miss Gascoine has which is not had in greater measure by scores of other actresses. And we’re not really thinking of Jaclyn -Smith, either. The programme itself, though, is filled with good people and situations. This week it even got serious about the philosophy of joining the police force, so it is apparently regarded as being authoritative enough to serve a little propaganda. , Apart from that it has a

way of holding the attention which, we steadfastly say, is in spite of, rather than because of, Jill Gascoine. Miss Gascoine may have fatally fed this prejudice by becoming a TV ad saleswoman on her last visit to New Zealand.