Television
Living doll
Richard Ingrams
Idon't know what she does to the enemy but, by God, she terrifies me. One can't be sure whether the late Duke of Wellington would have felt something of the kind watching Mrs Thatcher on Panorama but it was certainly my own reaction. I sup- pose Mrs T chose Panorama rather than Weekend World because she wanted to some extent to rally the nation behind her. Twelve o'clock on a Sunday morning when people are down at the boozer is not the best time for issuing clarion calls. Even so, it might have been better for all if she had chosen to be grilled by the wily Walden rather than the BBC duo of Robert Kee and Richard Lindley. Both of them appeared to be balancing huge notebooks on their knees, which they frequently glanced down
at, no doubt to refresh their memories about the searching questions they had got to ask. This never looks good. I'm sure Mr Walden wouldn't have to use a prompt sheet of this kind.
Mrs Thatcher firmly refused to be drawn into any discussion of her military plans and even the wrinkled charmer Mr Kee was told not to be a naughty boy for asking questions about what the next step was go- ing to be following the capture of South Georgia. For once, though, the TINA nickname seemed appropriate, quite apart from its being the second half of the enemy's name. Once the Falklands were captured she could have sat back and done nothing. But once she put the task force to sea, she was then committed to action. You can't fault her determination, and after years of wafflers like Wilson, Heath and Callaghan on the telly, her straight talking is very refreshing. I just hope, for every- one's sake, she knows what she's doing.
An afternoon spent in the law courts listening to the cross-examination of Dr Colin Morris, the head of the BBC's religious department, is not calculated to induce an atmosphere of high spirits. So it was in a sombre mood that I returned home last Friday. In the circumstances, the new ITV comedy series Bounder was just the right kind of antidote. Mr Peter Bowles, famous as the Goldsmith character in To the Manor Born, plays the title role, a char- ming fraud freshly out of prison, who moves in with his sister and his long- suffering brother-in-law (George Cole). Most of these half-hour domestic-comedy routines are fairly predictable but Bounder has a great deal of style and wit.
I am also quite enjoying the new BBC2 serial The Woman in White, an adaptation of Wilkie Collins's novel. Not having read the book I cannot say how closely it con- forms to the original, but with a number of excellent performances — especially by Diana Quick, an actress of great charm and distinction, and the late Alan Badel who plays the softly-spoken villain, Count Fosco — it does manage to evoke the authentic at- mosphere of Victorian melodrama. The background music by Patrick Gower is also of high quality.
Miss Anna Ford who rose to stardom as an ITN newsreader a year or two ago has ever since been trying to promote the pro- position that she is not just a pretty face. Her new venture is a midnight advice pro- gramme for teenagers called Crying Out Loud (Thames). Having announced that the popular idea of the teenager as a sex- crazed drug addict was wrong, Miss Ford went on to discuss drug addition at some 'length, with contributions from predictable people like counsellors, reformed addicts etc. The programme was glib and super- ficial and at times seemed to be suggesting that there was not much to choose from between one drug and the next. Miss Ford's performance was wooden and uninspiring. She always puts me in mind of a doll who has come to life, but then I suppose I am only a crusty old chauvinist.
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