Television
Star parts
Richard Ingrams
Idon't know whose idea it was to televise .i. the state banquet at Windsor Castle in honour of the visiting President Reagan. Whoever it was I suppose he thought that we would all be impressed by a pit of pomp and ceremony. But I find, myself, that a ringside view of these events only em- phasises their unreality. On this occasion the combination of the elderly Hollywood film star, with his glazed smile and folksy fireside tones, and the pompous British establishment with men carrying swords walking backwards produced a dreamlike atmosphere. You wondered what on earth Reagan was doing over here in the first place. David Dimbleby, the BBC's com- mentator, did his best with suitably hushed tones to summon up the air of a great state occasion, but it was hard to accept that Lord Weinstock, the Governor of the Bank of England and one of the actors from Brideshead Revisited really constituted peo- ple from all walks of life, as he seemed to suggest. Throughout the banquet, music was provided by a rather inferior band which seemed to experience difficulty even with the national anthem.
I had the pleasure, along with Eye col- leagues Rushton and Wells, to take part in a recent edition of the new late-night chat show, Wogan (BBC1). I am not sure whether Terry Wogan is intended to take over from Parkinson or not, as things stand. If he does I might have to eat my words about looking back to Parky in years to come as the representative of a Golden Age. Wogan is an altogether livelier and more attractive figure than the wooden, self-conscious Parkinson. He is prepared, too, as far as I can see, to venture beyond traditional chat show rent-a-personality folk, all of whom seem to have just publish- ed a book or opened in a West End show. Parkinson would never have had myself, Rushton and Wells on in a month of Satur- days, not because of personal animosity, but because he wouldn't have been able to predict how the discussion would go. He certainly wouldn't have had our own Auberon Waugh on, as Wogan did this week. Not unnaturally Wogan looked a lit- tle apprehensive on this occasion but managed to keep his end up very well and asked all the right questions. The editing, as Mavis Nicholson pointed out on Did You See. .?, is of a poor quality and the pro- gramme would be ten times better if they put it out live.
Shiva Naipaul succeeded with Writers and Places (BBC2) where Jan Morris failed. I complained that Morris, who spoke about Wales, failed in the end to tell us much about Wales or herself because she wasn't at all specific. Good television like goud writings has to be personal. Naipaul revisited his homeland of Trinidad and ID the course of half an hour told us a great deal not only about the island but about himself and his family. Hiked especiallY the picture we got of his old mother running a quarry with expert knowledge of detonators and still observing the ancient Hindu rituals in her home. Later on Sunday evening Granada presented a programme about the piani,st Murray Perahia. This suffered from the faults of so many TV programmes about ar; tists. In particular the producer seemed „ reluctant to show more than a brief snatch of music at a time. There were two elements in the programme — a potted biographY of Perahia, and a rehearsal of a Mozart PIO concerto with the English Chamber Or- chestra. Instead of doing these two lluilOs separately the producer cut them up in little bits and showed them alternately. Later la the programme the Chairman of Granada Television, Sir Denis Forman, made an unexpected guest appearance, sitting side by side at the piano with Perahia and clues. tioning him about his cadenza. I hope this Ills not going to set a precedent for other IT executives.
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