Television
InftPatient
Richard lngrams
!think I was probably too kind to Doctor Jonathan last week. The fact is that even the likes of me who think that we are immune to such things do get swayed to some extent by all the colour supplement features, the pictures of the Doctor surrounded by rows of hooks and the talk of Renaissance Man. So Perhaps it is no wonder it has taken me two 1.,,clog instalments of his medical block-buster 'lie Body in Question (BBC-2) to reach the conclusion that the Doctor is an absolutely thundering bore. Try as he may he cannot disguise his contempt for the non-medical 'Ilan in the street who doesn't even know Where his kidneys are located — the Pa. tient'. This 'patient' is also of course the \newer. I presume the Doctor thought he !ould not notice that he was being shown the same pictures of the intestine two weeks running, or that he was told twice about how we are all obsessed with our bowels, or that he would have to listen to the same silly bubbly Dr Who music while all this went on. t(ePetition would perhaps not matter too 1,t,lach were it not for the fact that a great mea1. of what the Doctor says is just pretentious — 'In the familiar act of swallowing le conclude an elaborate transaction with the °atside world. . . swallowing is crossing "e Rubicon' — or, which is more inexcusable, just excrutiatingly obvious. For e..xanaple, he observed solemnly this week Tilnat the doctor conducting a routine examianon of his patient could find either (a) sjiliptoms which confirmed his original Which La alternatively, (h) symptoms Inch seemed to indicate some other disease, I think only an intellectually arrogant _titan would fail to foresee the tedium that would overcome anyone listening to such a ,Pkronouncement. However, I do not think that the Doctor is beyond redemption, and. I n,ope.to show in what is scheduled as a series et)i thirteen articles on this topic how he can nine to a fuller understanding of things in general if he can only lift his gaze from the intestine to higher planes. _ lie could have made a start on Sunday by _watching Everyman. The contrast between li-t3ir Jonathan, an intensely clever man talkand Group Captain Leonard Chesh _ a rather simple man talking sense, was Ertrikingn. T, e Cheshire programme was a .ePeat of an interview with Peter France 'Pecially shown for Remembrance Sunday BC-1. I have now seen this profile swi.ice, and was again impressed by Che(inure s humility and his rock-like faith. It nes one good from time to time to hear so !otter's Ineone who is convinced, to use Dennisotter's phrase, that what he calls his soul is ,a1., other hands. Doctor Jonathan would say Tat such talk was meaningless, which again would help to explain why he is an ear thbound bore.
I wonder if it has even crossed Lord Delfont's mind that the Queen Mother might be bored rigid by having to watch his endless Royal Variety Performance (BBC-1). I thought the old dear looked pretty battered after three hours of bad comedians, Scottish dancers and the truly appalling Max Bygraves. Delfont and Bygraves seem to think she laps it all up.. I suppose that if she is sure the cameras will never be turned on her box she can always drop off. If she did so on Monday the eldritch shriek of Gracie Fields singing 'Sallee!' (fff) `Salleeeee!!!'(ffl) would have woken her up with a nasty jolt. I'm sorry to say that Basil Brush (BBC4) has gone to pot. This obviously has something to do with the fact that George Martin is no longer the scriptwriter and has been replaced by four people I have never heard of. Never mind, The Muppets are back on Friday.
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