28 OCTOBER 1949, Page 15

Thebes and Alexandra Palace The week's achievement—and a beauty to

remember—was tele- vision's production of Antigone, to which Alexandra Palace incom- prehensibly gave only one performance. There may well have been good practical reasons, but Anouilh's play turned out to be a tele- vision classic ; and I beg them to repeat it, with the same cast (Mr. George Relph as Creon and Miss Irene Worth as Antigone) and the same producer, Mr. Harold Clayton. Scanning the list of future television dramas, I can without great difficulty discern a play or two that might well give way to a second performance of this master- piece. I hope that Miss Worth will next time a little vary her intensity ; her performance will then be about as perfect as you can get in this fallible world.

To remain with television for a moment, there is to be more amateur boxing this week. This boxing makei excellent television. But when will the promoters of professional boxing see reason, and allow their big fights to be televised ? When will, in fact, the recalcitrant entertainment world stop its senseless and suicidal war with Alexandra Palace ? Has the televising of cricket reduced the crowds at Lord's ? These business-men of sport do not know their own business. For every man who stays at home to watch a fight or a football match on his screen, there will be a dozen who will take a new interest in fighting or football ; and will eventually end up at the turnstiles. Did radio kill the gramophone ? On the contrary ; it created a vast new public for music, of which the gramophone companies were beneficiaries.