‘Eye Witness’ not as good as ‘Two Ronnies’

Press, 5 March 1982, Page 13

‘Eye Witness’ not as good as ‘Two Ronnies’

Review

Douglas McKenzie

Karen Sims and David Beatson on “Eye Witness News” on Wednesday (One) came perilously close to concluding their show with a bad imitation of the Two Ronnies concluding their show — bad because Mr. Beatson seems to have a muscular problem about smiling freely, and Miss Sims doesn't wear glasses. Otherwise they did their best with the imitation, the camera hurtling back and forth between one and the other as they trod on the heels of each other’s final observations. But they missed entirely the punchline: “So it’s goodnight from me” — switch — “and goodnight from her.” Oh. and another thing: they weren’t very funny. It’s a complete mystery why Two has adopted the Two Ronnies dual format for presenting the news. It’s doomed from the start because the Two Ronnies have established that the idea is silly. Even if the Two Ronnies -had never existed as an example and encouragement, the idea would still have looked like a staff absorber because two people are being used where obviously one would be enough. And there are still two others. Nice Jenny Goodwin was there as an official reader looking as wildly startled as ever, although she would surely have heard herself giving at least some of the items on the earlier session. The fourth person was a young man on sport, and they had taken his blazer away, or perhaps it’s only Channel One that dolls up for these occasions. The items were all rather muddled, too. It was a night for Aboriginal rights and Maori rights on this programme and more about Maori rights on “Close Up” (One) and acres of news footage on the subject from the year dot. Where the channels seem

to have got the notion that racism in New Zealand is rapidly coming to some kind of boiling-point is beyond fathoming. No doubt it follows from programmes being made in the North Island. The meat dispute had to be “backgrounded” yet again, of course — another of these important, boring subjects. With disputes in the past it was usually the faces of Mr Andersen and Mr Muldoon which were trotted up on the screen until you could scream. Now it’s the faces of Mr Kennedy and Mr Muldoon. There must be a case for putting on special editions of this kind of thing for those who want it — at three o’clock in the morning. “Eye Witness News” manipulated its potential viewers in the blatant way that TV has made its very own, by extensively advertising an interview with a tearful Mrs Chamberlain, of Ayres Rock events, and then showing the substantive item at the very end of the 45-minute session, after the sport and before the weather. And, referring to sport for the last time this time, “Close Up” must have a strange assessment of “New Zealand today — its people, current issues and relationship with the rest of the world” if it thinks that professional surfboarding is either about people (in the general sense that presumably this programme lives by), is a current issue, or touches New Zealand’s relationship with the rest of the world. Why wasn’t the item held for a sports session?