10 JANUARY 1970, Page 27

Lean year

Sir: With all its faults the press is infinitely more interesting and, to my mind, infinitely more important than the degrading 'grin and blare it' box, with all its studio loads of posturing, grimacing, money-printing, charming tycoons and other personalities. Bill Grundy is (to my mind, again) one of the shrewder and more enjoyable writers on the press. A week, therefore, in which he finds himself compelled to devote his atten- tion entirely to the ghastly box (3 January) is definitely a week with a hole in it.

Absit omen, for 1970.

R. V . Smith

17 Rodney Road, New Malden, Surrey