From Alexandra Palace From recent television I cull the new
series of Foreign Corre- spondent, where Messrs. Alan Bullock and Edward Ward dealt last week (aided by maps and diagrams and films) with the Benelux countries. I got the feeling that this programme, with three coun- tries to cover, tried to cram too much into twenty-five minutes. Much was admirable, and the whole method is well-designed, but there occasionally crept over the screen a feeling of haste and superficiality. (This fault is likely, I am sure to disappear.) Tele- vision also spent a lot of time last week at the circus, its cameras making heavenly play with the shadows of acrobats on the Big Top. But I wish I could feel happy about performing animals. It is not for me a question of humanitarianism, but of aesthetics. The animals, I make no doubt, are trained with the greatest kindness ; but the sight of that noble animal, the bear, riding a bicycle is no less than repulsive. It is the insulting negation of his nature that offends. Chopin on television, too this week ; concert and ballet. Mr. Christian Simpson produces these ballets quite brilliantly.
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