Set-Sellers
I ASKED two people who came round for a drink the other night if they minded listening to the last twenty minutes of the play on ITV. They were old enough friends to cry 'For God's sake!' if they had wanted to protest but they took it meekly. On the way upstairs I told them that it was a play called Corinth House and was about a woman who was revenging herself on her old headmistress by making her appear mad to her fellow guests in one of those private hotels which provide for elderly gentlefolk. With this brief introduc- tion the play captured their interest at once and held it to the end. It was a delicate play, Cranford up to date, and provided an opportunity for English actresses to do one of the things they do superbly well : to por- tray strong emotions held in check by good manners. Such parts play better on the screen than on the stage where the trembling lip, the flickering lids and the delicate sniff arc lost to all those behind the third row. How pleasant to see on ITV something completely English and unviolent!
Later we watched the BBC account of the Labour Party conference and my guests left, swearing they would buy a television set the next day. It was, I think, the politics which sold them television. They were old Labour Party members and as they watched they were exclaiming: 'Look at Sydney's beard!' 'Harold's as Yorkshire as ever !"Zillie's in the same old groove!' It seems to me that this is the real and valuable effect of broadcasting the party conferences: it revives the faith and interest of the rank and file of the parties in an age when the local political rally seems to be losing its appeal.
As for armchair politicians with no party attachments, I suppose it is a wholly good thing that they should see what the political and trade union leaders look like. As well as the figures who appeared at Blackpool we have seen during the past few days Dick Coppock flapping his Robeyesque eyebrows at Aldan Crawley and defending the 'brickics'; Mac-
millan and Thorneycroft explaining the pro- posals for a free trade area in Western Europe; and Jim Campbell not very convincingly telling Chataway that he thought his report on colour prejudice among railway workers out of balance. Chataway's interview with Bevan was the best piece of television journal- ism I saw coming from Blackpool. He put all the hard and relevant questions directly but with easy good manners. I was ready to admire Chataway's political sagacity as well as his style, but it seemed from the papers next day as though he had asked the same questions as had been put at Bevan's press conference. Antony Head has also appeared on the screen this week, under fire from Wyatt on the troubles among the Reservists. Head started weakly but, built up strength as be went on and must have left relations of serving soldiers feeling that at the War Office is a good and humane man who will do all he can for the comfort of the soldiers that is consistent with the task the Government has set the Army.
The Groves, for whom I have a juvenile weakness, came back this week after their summer vacation. The script was weak but it was a delight to many of us to see once more Grandma Grove, who always reminds me of Denry's iron mother in The Card, and Mrs. Grove, who is the typical good mother. Northern style. I think the appeal of this programme, particularly to children, is that it shows that other families, too, can have their tensions and crises but remain united and loving.
JOHN BEAVAN
Previous page
