Reporter’s diary

Press, 17 June 1982, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Cup fever STRANGE delusions can afflict those suffering from World Cup fever. Lack of sleep, nervous . tension and high excitement are all known to cause gross perceptual distortions. Because it is the carrier of the affliction, the television set commands the attention of the feverish; it becomes the centre of their lives; and they become obsessed with its well-being. Instead of regarding the set ■as an object, the sufferer starts thinking of it as something more. At least, that is the only apparent explanation for what a colleague saw yesterday outside Christchurch Hospital during the soccer telecast. As he drove along Riccarton Avenue past the hospital he stopped for a wheelchair-pushing orderly who seemed anxious to use ' the pedestrian crossing outside the hospital entrance. From the reverent way the orderly steered the wheelchair it seemed that its passenger. , was .seriously ill. Showing a "reporter’s macabre curiosity, the colleague craned to see who it was — the passenger, was a television set. Royal standard THERE MUST be as many definitions of what is a "reasonable standard of dress” as there are people who bother to define it. That ■bother begets bother is. illustrated ■ by the following story from ... .. .

the latest issue of the Bank Officers’ Union journal, “Chequemate,” The manager of a bank branch in Auckland reprimanded a female worker for failing to maintain 41 reasonable standard because she was wearing knickerbockers’ A stand-off resulted and threatened to sour office relations, but a picture of the Princess of Wales pinned'to the office wall restored peace. She was wearing knickerbockers, and no more was heard from the manager. Wash-out A CHRISTCHURCH man, thinking that the new washing line his landlord had installed in the front of his flat which faced a busy street was an invitation to thieves, decided to avoid the risk by having his clothes washed at a launderette. He dropped off a bag in the morning and went to collect it after work, but it could not be found. After much searching on the part of the launderette staff, it was concluded that his bag had mistakenly been given to another customer. They told him two anxious hours later that it had been recovered, but he had already decided that in future he would .risk the washing line. Bounty series . THE NEW ZEALAND-built replica of the sailing ship

“Bounty” may yet play the. role for which it was originally intended. Two feature films based on the vessel were cancelled because they were going to be too costly. A seven-hour television miniseries of “Mutiny on the .Bounty” is being considered • by the Dino De Laurentiis Corporation. A British producer, Bernard Williams, said the script would be - written by Robert Bolt, who wrote scripts for the films, “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Doctor Zhivago,” and “Ryan’s Daughter.” The director would be Alan Bridges, whose film credits include “Return of the Soldier” and “The Hireling.” Williams, who produced “Barry Lyndon,” “Clockwork Orange” and “Flash Gordon,” said a two-hour edited version of the series would be released to cinemas, if the project goes ahead, filming could start in October. Biggest draw THEATRE and cinema operators in New Zealand may be dreading the arrival of the glamour 8.8. C. adaptation of . Evelyn Waugh’s, classic, “Brideshead Revisited,” if its impact in Australia is anything to go by. Billed as “the series that, defies criticism,” the television programme is keeping so many theatre-goers at home that some theatre performances and film screenings have been cancelled.