Will Waspe's Whispers
The ITA's plea for the fourth channel is of a piece with the bookmakers' representations about the Tote subsidy. Neither Mr Chataway nor Mr Maudling can feel flattered by the widespread suspicion that they cannot recognise a vested interest, not to mention a potential monopoly, when they see one; but it would be helpful if there were an end to lofty talk about the public interest in discussions of the ITA case, when the issue is simply the juiciness of the profits.
I am interested in the peripheral position of Dr Tom Margerison, formerly chief executive with LWT and now, of course, a prime opponent of ITV4. He is subtly plugging coin-in-the-slot as the solution at every opportunity. Will anyone call the odds on the likelihood of Margerison's inpany if that is the way the ball bounces?
Calculated risk
The writer of the Londoner's Diary in the Evening Standard has been quick to take up my item last week on the less sweet uses of advertisement. Not, of course, to defend his organisation's ways of selling papers. What wounds him is my charitable doubt that his colleague Alexander Walker "would complain or even be surprised" at his attack on Straw Dogs (its effect "is to gratify, titillate and shock ") being used actually to advertise the film.
It now transpires that I was too kind to Walker in naively crediting him with being more sensible of the ways of the film industry than his confrere Melly. He did complain. But the Londoner should really have kept quiet about it. For while Walker might complain, he can scarcely pretend surprise, since he himself suggested to the film's promoters the possibilities inherent in his review: "To catalogue such atrocities is to run the risk of advertising them. The risk must be taken."
Royal house
The Crown Estate Commissioners will, I'm sure, share the general satisfaction that the royal family is to be more lavishlY provided for. Lord Perth, the senior commissioner, must have the most luxurious office of anyone in public service. His Carlton House Terrace premises have been gutted and sumptuously re-appointed under the direction of interior decorator Michael Inchbald.
Inchbald, somewhat to the dismay of the commissioners but nevertheless successfully, made an approach to Her Majesty and secured important furnishings and pictures from Windsor—items from the George III, George IV and early Victorian periods which he has cunningly blended to produce an effect of unchanging occupancy. The commissioners, not unnaturally, are being discreet about their good fortune, but the premises are worth finding an excuse to visit.
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