12 JUNE 1971, Page 6

Ageless Aquarius

Aquarius, one of the few television series devoted to the arts in London to be planning to put out an entire programme from Paris in a week or two's time, has found a re- newed lease of life under the new Director- General of the Independent Television Auth- ority, Brian Young. When his appointment was rumoured—no more than that— Humphrey Burton rang him up and said, as one does on these occasions, think we

may have one or two things to sit down and chat about'. This pleasant gesture may not have been entirely unconnected with Rupert Murdoch's threat to make Aquarius fort- nightly and push it into a later slot.

At all events, Humphrey Burton invited himself to dinner with Brian Young and brought along a friend of his wife's called Britt Ekland. Miss Ekland was extremely charming to her host, and when, four days later, Brian Young was made 13-o, it came as an immense surprise to everyone to find Aquarius occupying a weekly slot at the peak viewing time of 10 pm. Nor, naturally, could' anybody have guessed that in the first fifty- minute programme twenty minutes would be devoted to the delightful Miss Ekland herself.