Television
Who cares?
Wendy Cope
A, 11 o'clock on Sunday evening I was eating a fried egg on toast and reading the children's comic that comes with the Sun- day Times. This depressed behaviour was the result of an overdose of depressing television, namely She's Been Away, the award-winning, star-studded, this-is-a- major-new-production film that had just been shown in the Screen One slot (BBC 1, 9.05 p.m.).
The film wove together the stories of two women. One of these stories — the one about the poor old thing who'd been shut away in an institution for 60 years — might have been tolerable, even interesting, on its own. It featured good performances by Peggy Ashcroft as Lillian, a grey-haired child in her seventies, and by Rebecca Pidgeon as the rebellious young Lillian.
In the other story Geraldine James played Harriet, a former bit-part actress who had married a rich man and hated him. The idea, it seemed, was that both women were victims and prisoners. Har- riet's husband (James Fox) was a run-of- the-mill upper-class meal ticket, a bit insensitive and bossy and certainly not the right spouse for her. However, it was difficult to see that her predicament was anyone's fault but her own. Her behaviour grew more and more bizarre until at the climax (and nadir) of the film she writhed around, drunk and pregnant, on the stair- case of an expensive hotel. Meanwhile Peggy Ashcroft searched for help in an empty corridor. This was probably meant to symbolise our uncaring society.
She's Been Away was tedious and gave me little pleasure. But perhaps it is wrong of me to condemn it for this reason. According to Chris Auty, a young pundit who appeared on The Media Show (Chan- nel 4, 8 p.m., Sunday), 'When an audience sighs with pleasure... you know there's something wrong with the relationship between the film-maker and the audience.' He commended Peter Greenaway, the director of a new film called The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover for being `corrosive' and creating 'moments of agony 'for the audience'. Yes, I know Shakespeare does that too but there is a lot more to Shakespeare than scenes where people get their eyes put out. Judging by the extracts we saw on television, Green- away's film is revoltingly violent and in- cludes nothing that could entertain anyone who isn't a sadist. His purpose, revealed in an interview, is to wake us up to the .fact that we live in an uncaring society.
What a relief to turn to the work of David Lodge. His book, Nice Work, as everyone must know by now, tells the story of the relationship between a lefty feminist university teacher and the managing direc- tor of an engineering factory. I have yet to come across a better novel, film or play about Thatcher's Britain. The television adaptation, by the author himself, can currently be seen on Wednesday evenings (BBC 2, 9.25 p.m.). The only thing I disliked about the first episode was the fact that the lecturer, Robyn Penrose, has long hair. In the book she has cropped her curls `brutally short just to demonstrate how inadequately they represent her character'. Apart from that it was good. When it finished I poured myself a glass of mineral water and picked up a book of verse.
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