10 OCTOBER 1958, Page 24

ITV PROGRAMMES

SIR,—What, may I ask Pharos, is particularly humiliating about losing a game on television?

As one of the contestants on Dotto I did not feel particularly humiliated when I failed to guess that a rather bad drawing was General de Gaulle, After all, the programme is only meant to be fun—so why be pompous about it? Is one meant to feel humiliated because one has failed in front of nine million people or because one is being trivial? No, I fail to see his point. Is it more humiliating to fail in Dotto than to fail to score a century in a Test Match or to win a boxing match, which are to me two particularly stupid ways of spending one's time?

If Pharos had had the delightful experience that I have had these last two weeks when perfectly ordinary men and women have continually stopped me to wish me luck, or to say how much they had enjoyed seeing me, he might, perhaps, realise how nice and simple ordinary television viewers are. Then he might use a little humility himself to stop being such a pompous prig and such an intellectual snob.—Yours faithfully, JOY LESLIE-GIBSON 666 Great West Road, Osterley. Middlesex