Television
Brass tacks
Alexander Chancellor
This being the Christmas issue of the Spectator, this is certainly the most important article in it. It ought to be emblazoned across the cover. But it seems that the Spectator is still too fogeyish to realise that a 'traditional Christmas' is no longer so much to do with church or Mr Digby Anderson's recipes or Mr Auberon Waugh's wine cellar as it is to do with television. Nowadays, it is only after church and after lunch that for most people the real spirit of Christmas comes to life, in front of the television set. It is then that all the nation's divorcees and aban- doned old people unite as one great warm, happy family.
The fare is as familiar as it was at lunch, for otherwise this would not be Christmas. Following the Queen's Christmas broad- cast at 3 p.m. BBC1 offers Mary Poppins, Blankety Blank, Hi-de-Hi, The Paul Daniels Magic Christmas Show, Just Good Friends, The Two Ronnies, and finally Wogan (principal guest Victoria Principal of Dallas) before the late-night film, Some Like it Hot.
Before the Queen,. ITV gives us the Jayne Torvill and ,Christopher Dean Spe- cial, and after her a James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun, Give us a Clue, A Tribute to Eric Morecombe, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Des O'Connor Tonight. The only things that seem worth watching here are one or two of the films, in particular Some Like it Hot, the Marilyn Monroe/Tony Curtis/Jack Lemmon mas- terpiece, but the trouble is that practically everybody will have seen them already.
For the more 'discerning' viewer, or at least the viewer who does not wish to be publicly identified with Blankety Blank or Des O'Connor, what do the other channels
have to offer? Ballet is the thing. While BBC2 is giving us The Nutcracker by the Scottish Ballet, Channel 4 presents Giselle by the Kirov Ballet. BBC2's Christmas film is Kaos by the Taviani brothers, and Channel 4's is an adaptation of The Young
Visiters [sic], starring Tracy Ullman. I never go to previews, but I have a secret agent who does, and he tells me that The Young
Visiters is most enjoyable. Channel 4 previews are apparently notorious for their breakdowns, which is rather what one would expect, and the preview of its Christmas Day documentary about the drunken Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius, set a new record fot interruptions, although the Finnish Ambassador was pre' sent. 'Poetic' is the word myagent uses to describe it. It sounds a bit depressing te me, but it may suit some people's mood of melancholy on Christmas evening. The great broadcasting tragedy this Christmas is the departure of Terry Wogan from Radio 2 after 12 years as host of his early morning show. Instead, he will be doing a television chat show three nights week. While one does not want to say anything unpleasant about somebody se nice and so funny as Terry Wogan, the facts must be faced. He is a brilliant radio broadcaster but a rotten television inter' viewer. The Wogan show on BBC1 is quite, unworthy of him. He is bland and sycophantic to his guests, who are the . predictable selection of 'celebrities' with books or films to plug. This is probably not Wogan's fault. He has inherited the Par; kinson chat show tradition, which is wile' the viewers seem to like, and the structure of this sort of programme is such that al? an achievement just to get through !! without anything terrible happening. But 1' is a complete waste of Mr Wogan's talents. If he has now decided to turn his back 011 radio, perhaps they can find him a new sort, of television programme that would suit him better.
As we approach the end of the year, BBC is facing one of its periodic financial crises. It wants a big rise in the licence fee which it is unlikely to get, and there are many Conservatives, including some not million miles away from Number Ten Downing Street, who believe that it ought to accept advertising. Given that BBC1 is no longer distinguishable in quality from 11.v i and that Channel 4 is at least as good as, I` not better than, BBC2, it is difficult to think of strong reasons why the BBC should remain unsullied by commerce. Bu t there is still a large minority of people Wil° detest advertising, and their feeling should be respected. My solution would be to forbid advertis. ing on BBC2, Radio 4, Radio 3, and the World Service, butpermit it on all the other BBC broadcasting services. In the meantime, if the BBC needs to sa:11 money, it might like to consider packill its dreary breakfast television servleei Even if this were to have the effect 00' enriching the undeserving shareholders 1 TV-am, I would still applaud the decision.
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