23 AUGUST 1957, Page 15

TV APPLE CART SIR,-1 was gratified that your critic, Mr.

Findlater, expressed pleasure at my appearance as King Magnus in The Apple Cart, but a little nonplussed at his alarm over the alleged fee that I was paid by the BBC for this appearance. In view of the fact that Mr. Findlater is a very distinguished and experienced journalist I cannot think that he believes what he reads in the newspapers.

As a balm to his alarm may I say that if the quoted figure—MO—were halved it would be more like the fee I actually received.

I think he is a little unfair in inferring that actors are grabbing more than their fair share of the mone- tary rewards that may be, I was going to say flowing, but 1 will say trickling, out of this colossus. When Mr. Findlater talks about 'boosting' fees in television he gives the impres‘ion that the-thing is getting completely out of hand. Without releasing any additional figures that the inland revenue authori- ties do not already know, may I say that for the four weeks' work entailed in this production I received considerably less than I would have received for one day's work in a film studio, and for that payment it was possible, if they cared to stay tuned to the pro- gramme, for something like eight million people to see the performance of this play. At a conservative estimate might we say two years' run at a West End theatre. Is the actor's fee so high?

I think it should be conceded that nowadays enter- tainment is an industry. Of course there are aspects of it which raise the industry to an art; whilst we have leading members of the profession such as Mr. Findlater mentioned, Dame Edith, Dame Sybil, Dame Peg, Sir Laurence and Sir John, Mr. Redgrave and Mr. Guinness, this quality will never be lacking. But the majority of actors, artists, or whatever they like to be called, rely for their livelihood on a business- like industry. Unfortunately the actor may not agree with this condition, but it is a fuct.

The payment side surely is a question of degree. I think a parallel might be drawn by. say, a Covent Garden porter who instead of working five days a week moving one thousand sacks of unshelled peas, works half a day moving the same amount of peas. frozen in packets. -Is he likely to be satisfied with half a day's pay? Television is a package, it is packed into the home and requires no effort on the part of the consumer; is it unfair to begrudge the producer of the package his short-lived, and almost invisible, profit?—Yours faithfully,