25 OCTOBER 1957, Page 7

HAVING YEARS AGO enjoyed Leslie Howard in The Scarlet Pintpernel,

1 decided to watch it on Com- mercial Television on Saturday night. The film was interrupted five times by advertisements. None of the interruptions was for less than two minutes and one was for three. The total ad- vertisement time in a programme of one hour fifty minutes was over thirteen minutes. Even if we leave out of account the advertisements at the beginning of the film, they would seem to have infringed the Television Act, which lays down that there should not be more than six minutes of advertisement in an hour. But no doubt the ITA has a very good reason why this part of the Act should not be observed.