ITV PROGRAMMES
SIR,—Mr. Irwin makes me ill. For two weeks now he has succeeded in shrugging off restrained criticism of two of the most moronic of the telly's effusions with the oh so old and tired piece of hypocrisy that the public gets from its television what the public itself chooses. Would someone kindly explain to him that this particular gimmick has done long and faith- ful service .for every charlatan since the prophets of Baal; that it is weary, drooping, played out, dead as last year's commercial, and, above all, utterly irrelevant?
I have no doubt but that there are shops in Lon- don which could do a thriving trade in knives, coshes, firearms and poisons exclusively : if it had a large enough machine behind it, I am sure that heroin could become the staple diet of half the country. Fortunately, in these cases the resultant evils are so patent as to allow the law to take a hand: if it did not, I suppose we should see Mr. Irwin and others professing his particular brand of cynicism making a whacking great profit out of `giving the public what it wants.'
For there, sir, is the genuine—if trite—reason for propagating Dotto, Keep it in the Family and others of their ilk : they are with us for keeps, like it or lump it, because it is and always has been, profitable to titillate people's lowest tastes. The trouble with television, as with other media of popular entertain- ment, is that the people in it have been in the dole- queue long enough to know when to thank heaven for their salary and when to bury any further con- sideration about how they make it. Scruples die quickly when the money is easy and legal.
I don't begrudge Mr. Irwin's children their bread, sir: neither would 1 consider wasting your space with a letter deploring Dotto and Keep it in the Family. That doesn't make them any the less deplorable: but I'll go on switching off in silence provided that I don't also have to put up with Mr. Irwin posing as a dedicated public servant.—Yours faithfully,
19 Wemyss Road, Blackheath, SE3
JOHN G. MORETON
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