26 SEPTEMBER 1958, Page 22

AMERICANA ON TV

SIR,—Your television correspOndent, Peter FOrsier, remarks that 'the BBC at least keeps its Americana to the less' obtrusive early-evening times.' 1 am afraid that this remark is no longer accurate. The BBC has recently announced plans to put on a series of tele- recordings of American comedy shows in opposition to ITV's Sunday Night at the Palladium.

This seems a poor method of competing with ITV's popularity. If the BBC is to rely on American material as one of its strongest weapons of competi- tion, it is a sorry look-out for British technicians and artists, to say nothing of the standurds of public- service broadcasting, which the BBC has for long claimed to uphold.—Yours faithfully,

P. J. HART

11 Scarsdale Villas, W8