The most striking improvements in the new Choice are the
replacement of Richard Dimbleby by Derek Hart of Tonight, the concentration on one main topic (instead of two as before) and the BBC's not insisting that all that it is doing is merely reporting on reports published in Which? The programme no longer gives us the impression that everyone at the BBC is scared stiff of the subject-matter and its implications, nor are we bombarded into boredom with facts and figures.
There was some real bite to Friday night's programme and it came right at the start with Derek Hart interviewing John Bloom. Hart showed us the washing-machine ads for which Bloom has now become famous-full-page spreads lauding his 39 guinea model while the 59 guinea de luxe machine is mentioned as an apparent afterthought at the bottom of the page.
All the more damaging facts of Bloomery came across in the interview-that in spite of the weighting of the advertisements, the 59 guinea machine accounts for 81 per cent of his washing machine sales; that the true rate of hire-purohase interest on the Bloom machines is 23 per cent (as against 8 per cent charged by the Electricity Board); that only 34 lb. of washing can be done at a time in the Rolls whereas other similar machines can tackle at least 5 lb. seems every reason to believe that, in spite of higher costs, the company will continue to make good progress. The £1 ordinary shares at 59s., yield 5.1 per cent.
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