Consuming Interest New 'Choice'
By LESLIE ADRIAN The first thing to be said about the opening pro- gramme is that its editor and producer have taken this criticism to heart. In the first half of the programme Richard Dimbleby reported on the tests in Which? covering fifteen children's tricycles. Fifteen boys and girls aged two to five rode the tricycles round the studio and, with the help of some nervous adult guides, each managed to be in the right place for the cameras at the right time. There were one or two slips which would have raised howls from the adver- tising agency representatives if this had been commercial television—one little girl's skirt pre- vented us from seeing most of the back half of her tricycle and one boy insisted on pushing with his feet on the ground rather than on the pedals ('Cut! Retake! !)--but, generally speaking, this part of the programme went smoothly and well. By a process of elimination which was clear and easy to follow, a 'best buy' emerged and two others were recommended as good value for money. (As a matter of interest, they were all made by the same manufacturer.) In the second half of the programme, we had Shopper's Guide's report on cardigans made of wool, nylon, courtelle and orlon. This was much less satisfactory, mainly because there was too much information to be got across and because it was inconclusive. I managed to note that none of the cardigans was perfect, that all the woollen ones shrank, all the nylon ones stretched and the courtelle and orlon ones either shrank or stretched, but only by a little. (If I got it wrong, it's because there wasn't time to check.) There was no best buy because Shopper's Guide doesn't believe in re4ornmending a best buy, so the con- clusion was a mix-up in which, if I remember rightly . . but I don't.
But I do know now what's wrong with the programme. The first half was a great improve- ment on previous programmes because the pace was comfortable, the results of the tests came through and one was led clearly to a decisive conclusion in which there was a best buy and two good buys. In the second half the pace at any rate seemed faster and the conclusion was unclear and indecisive. I think this will always be the case so long as Shopper's Guide will not recommend a best buy. The fault lies with the BBC as well. Because it insists on 'balancing' (that old bugbear) Which? and Shopper's Guide it is trying to do the impossible: it is trying to balance good television material with bad.
Look out for limes; they should be appearing more frequently in the shops from now on. Rose's (of lime juice and marmalade fame) tell me that, inspired by the exhortations of this column, they are getting regular shipments of limes sent from Dominica.
The first cargoes will be small to match the present small though vociferous demand. (Too many people still react to fresh limes much as the Cockney evacuee who, on seeing for the first time milk coming out of a cow, said he would sooner have the old-fashioned stuff from a bottle.) Unfortunately for those of us who want
to encourage the few importers and retailers en- terprising enough to bother with fresh limes, bY
the time they arrive in the shops the limes more often than not look like tiny, tired lemons rather than the aggressive little fruit they really are Also, although limes are ten a penny in Dominica, they arc likely to cost about tenpence each after their journey from the lime groves of the Sugar Island to the greengrocer's shelf, yet that dingy appearance is only skin deep, and the price would be sure to drop if only the English would show any sign of appreciating limes in the way the Americans do.
Good as they are combined with gin, vodka or rum, limes have more uses than merely acting as accessory to a cocktail—as anyone who has tasted the subtle, bitter-sweet marmalade made of fresh limes will agree. (Use any recipe for lemon marmalade—a dozen limes makes about two and a half pounds.) In fact, anything 3 lemon can do, a lime can do rather more subtlY —vide the tingle-tongue taste of a lime water ice, the tang of fresh lime juice (instead ot lemon) in a salad dressing, or squeezed over an orange-fleshed melon. Limes have a remarkable affinity for oranges' A sprinkling of lime juice (literally) tarts up fresh orange salad without destroying its sweet- ness, while a combination of orange and lime juice (in the proportions of four to one) makes a fine astringent fruit cocktail.
If you do decide to go looking for limes, are most likely to be lucky with Harrods, Jack- son's of Piccadilly, the Continental Greengrocer in Old Compton Street, with one of the. eg- cellent greengrocer shops to be found in Mollie- bone High Street or the King's Road, Chelsea' and sometimes at Sainsbury's.
I could never bring myself to believe the story about the man who took back the mothballs be' cause he couldn't hit the little perishers With them. But I took great delight in the Audrey Withers story recorded in the journal of the Royal Society of Arts about the woman Iv° had tried nourishing creams but didn't like .Elle taste. The beauty editor of Vogue rePilerii 'Actually some people do find them very helPf."44 on the skin.' Thanks.' said the woman, `1 wi` go back and try again.'
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