Critic criticised
Sir: I have never written a novel, publicly exhibited a painting, acted in any stage
production or directed a film. Which may or may not be why I have never held any strong opinion as to the fitness of critics to pronounce upon the fruits of labour in any of these creative fields. Only last Friday (20 November), reading Richard lngrams's column, was it suddenly borne in upon ate that criticism may be in even worse condition than the creative activities upon which such innocents as myself accept its judgments.
I read Mr Ingrams's opinion of The Generation Game with fellow-feeling; glad that I am not, as I had sometimes feared, the only TV viewer who finds the programme asinine and its professional participants as unappealing as its amateur ones are pitiable. But I began reading halfway through the piece, and only later returned to the head of Mr Ingrams's column. Whereupon I realised that, despite his having coincidentally arrived at my own viewpoint, when watching The Generation Game, he is so strongly biased as to surely disqualify hint from passing fair judgment on any but a very few low-rating programmes, in terms of popularity.
Great Heaven! The man watches the box regularly, and still believes in 'basic good sense and decency'! With the kind of rivalry between TV companies for viewers' attention that he describes, he must surely conclude that viewers are on the whole given what most pleases them. If from the resulting mass of comedy without wit; indlxtinguishable cop-epics and endlesslYrepeated films, Mr Ingrams can still believe a majority of viewers possess 'basic good sense and decency' then this unfits him to write of television in any worthwhile way as critic.
Nick Allen 116 Slack Lane, Derby
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