t )(14 1.1U AM TV b. t wo successive issues of the
Spectator have now `en marred with pieces by Peter Forster as vague ZIld uninformed as they have been insulting to Wales. encrally speaking, we Welsh have a richer sense of humour than our English neighbours, and we look with tolerance at the efforts of people like Mr. r tc't;stor to be clever and funny. We are even prepared bo h;a11811 at ourselves (for we find us quite comical); en.' vie must draw the line at a prolonged and rather "Wad sneer. to As far as they emerge, the points Mr. Forster seems k sh "c trying to make are (1) that the English audience 1,,,°,114.1 not be subjected to forty-five minutes in (",ctsh at what he thinks are peak viewing hours and 2 12that TV needs galvanisation, expansion, impetus. oeidentally he wonders why the Welsh language pr is °grammes should be in a special category which of not affected by the Postmaster-General's rationing I V transmitting time. ndced, these arc reasonable posers, and a res th_flonsible critic might have been expected to treat .1-4, reasonably and find the answers, Mr. Forster 110 doubt produce one for point 2; but on point se:'c is clearly baffled, If he examined the Welsh TV the '1 more closely he would find that coverage of mit,rrincipality is effected principally by four trans- Iers, each of which is shared with an English —wan. Thus to put out any programme for home
consumption, the BBC or TWW in Cardiff, for instance, has to decide when it can be squeezed in without causing too much offence to viewers in the West country.
The situation as it is admits of no modification or adaptation, which is why we in Wales have been told for years that, unlike the Scots and the Irish, we cannot have an independent TV service. What curious individual failed to appreciate that Wales would not always be prepared to sharc its masts with the West and North of England we do not know; but someone at the top may have a guilty conscience, which explains why the BBC is allowed to broadcast forty-five minutes Welsh material on Sundays which is beamed to London for the benefit of the 250,000 London-Welsh, not for Mr. Forster.
Mr. Forster would have done Wales (and the Pilkington Committee) a service had he searched all this out and reported it fairly, instead of laboriously filling his copy with sentences which he did not understand, and even hauling in the old Dylan gag. Why don't you. Fforeggub, Mr. Forster?—Yours faithfully, DAVID PARRY-JONES 12 Ninian Road, Cardiff
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