Television
Unplugged
Alexander Chancellor
T made the mistake the other week of idescribing LWT's Weekend World and Channel 4's Face the Press as two of the best current affairs programmes on televi- sion. One should never bestow this sort of praise, for it seems to have a deadly effect. Last Sunday's Weekend World was no' usually boring, although it was on the, extremely interesting subject of India; ao' Face the Press packed its bags and went off expensively to the United States for the curiously pointless purpose of interviewing Mrs Rosalynn Carter, the former First Lady. Perhaps it was imagined that Mrs Carter's views would be of interest 00th eve of the American Presidential Election, but if so, it was imagined wrong. Predict- ably, she was only interested in defending the record of her former President husband and in making loyal noises about Walter Mondale. It became clear during the prog- ramme that she was only there in order to plug her new book. This is, of course, the only reason why most American celebrities appear on British television, but usually we at least insist on them coming here to do so. , When they do, there is no stopPing 'My wife divorced me for unreasonable behaviour.' them. I thought we had finally seen the end of Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal, both of Whom were over here only a few weeks ago, plugging away like crazy. But during the last few days they both popped up again. Mr Vidal appeared on the Terry Wogan show (Wogan BBC1), perhaps because Mr Mailer had been on it a week or two earlier; and Mr Mailer turned up on Frank Delaney (BBC2), which is the same thing as saying he appeared with Frank Delaney on the first of a new series about books. Neither, to be fair, was plugging very hard. Mr Vidal's new book was not even mentioned, at least not directly, though he contrived to bring Abraham Lincoln into the conversation while talking about Ronald Reagan. Mr Mailer was discussing murder with Colin Wilson and the delightful Beryl Bainbridge, and the references to his new thriller were only incidental. But the fact remains that the BBC breaks all its rules about advertising When it comes to books. If it is allowed to Promote books, I don't see why it should not advertise everything else. Talking of Wogan, I have decided he is hopelessly miscast on his television prog- ramme. Mr Vidal put his finger on it when he cruelly pointed out to his host that in America nobody ever graduates from radio to television, because the talents deman- dred by one medium are considered unsuit- aole for the other. Mr Wogan is much better and funnier when you can't see him. As a television interviewer, he just looks goofy and at sea. Even so, you can't help rather liking him. It is fatal to stay at home on Saturday evenings. The quality of all the program- mes on television — not just of Wogan — is exceptionally bad. This would perhaps not be so if the programme makers were not trYing so hard to meet an imagined demand for 'light entertainment', a concept which seems to kill all genuine humour or gaiety. Even Dynasty (BBC1), which used some- limes to be fairly enjoyable, has complete- 'Y gone to pieces. And it is no good turning to the serious channels, for all you get on Channel 4 is more feeble comedy and on 1313C2 — worse still — Mr Andre Previn telling us the story of the symphony. Sundays, on the other hand, are normal- IY full of good things. Last Sunday, for example, there was a remarkable program- ine about chimpanzees, starring the obses- sive Miss Jane Goodall who has spent the Past 25 years studying these extraordinary animals in Tanzania and looks set to go on (113ing so for the rest of her life. There was also, on Channel 4, The Trial of Richard in which lawyers spent four hours !.,fiterrogating historians, doctors and other witnesses about the murder of the little Princes in the Tower. I was greatly relieved When the Indian foreman of the jury aTnnounced he had been found Not Guilty. Let nobody in future question this verdict. But much of the most remarkable thing n television during the past week was the Ineral of Mrs Gandhi, shown live on both 8C2 and ITV last Saturday morning. It is in the live coverage of great events that television always comes into its own, and never more so than on this occasion. The cremation of Mrs Gandhi was an event so strange to western eyes that it was almost impossible to believe one was watching it as it happened in one's own home (not that I was, as a matter of fact. I was in the office).
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