‘Desperate Lives’

Press, 4 May 1984, Page 11

‘Desperate Lives’

“Desperate Lives,” the movie on One at 9 p.m. tomorrow, chronicles the widespread and growing misuse of drugs by today’s teenagers, and focuses on a young high school counsellor who refuses to accept that nothing can be done to correct the epidemic of drugs being used by young people. A high-school counsellor, Eileen Phillips, becomes more and more aware of the volume of drugs being used by students in America, and the attitude of seemingly unconcerned school teachers and officials who would rather turn their backs on the problem. Enraged by what she has seen, she reaches out to one of the students involved in drugs, hoping that if she can help him, one student can become two, two can become three, until the problem is under control.

Eileen fights the establishment, and the students’ attitude to tragic results of drug abuse.

Joe Cocker arrested Joe Cocker has been arrested on fraud charges after failing to turn up for a concert in Vienna. Britain’s “Daily Express” said Cocker faces up to two months in a cell while police inquiries continue because Austria has no bail system. Cocker’s manager, Martin Biallaf, was paid $36,700 two hours before the show was due to start. Concert organisers allege that instead of going on stage, Cocker became intox-

icated in his hotel. Mr Biallaf said Cocker refused to perform because of technical problems with the concert hall. Change of job Allanah James, the last of the founding reporters on “Science Express,” will have her last appearance on the programme tomorrow. She has left to join the Christchurch newsroom, and in particular to work on TVNZ’s election coverage. The present series of “Science Express” Will end tomorrow. A new series will begin on July 11.

Rebroffs tour The Russian-born singer, Ivan Rebroff, has postponed until October a planned New Zealand tour which was to have opened in Auckland on May 14. Rebroff is to undergo surgery in Germany for an undisclosed condition. Arts guild A guild of film and television arts has been established. It represents the Academy of Motion Pictures, the Independent Producers’ and Directors’ Guild, the Writers’ Guild, Television Producers’ and Directors’ Association, and Actors’ Equity. The chairman is John Reid. New series

“The Irish R.M.,” which will end on Sunday, will be replaced by a dramatisation of Charles Dickens’s “Great Expectations.”