Television
BBC coverage of the Orpington by-election made for the most entertaining and suspenseful viewing in a long time. While the results were being slowly counted, Robert Kee, on the spot, handled all corners with admirable coolness, be they visiting political firemen, solemn local dig- nitaries (er, yes, this is my chain of office you see here and, em, this is our coat-of-arms of which we are very proud), or the three smiling candidates themselves. Meanwhile, back at the studio, a panel of MPs (most memorably Woodrow Wyatt and Enoch Powell) carried on boisterously. So boisterously in fact that Robin Day, a severe disciplinarian, had to put the boys down from time to time and, once, the school principal himself, the ubiquitous Mr. Dimbleby, was heard from.
The most unintentionally hilarious moments were provided by that incomparable team, Robert McKenzie and David Butler. Juggling statistics, trends, charts, graphs and previous election results, these two experts came up with some startling conclusions. One of them felt, taking all the data into consideration, that the Orpington result was heartening and . . . well, disheartening : the other, though he ventured that time might prove him wrong, felt the result was significant and insignificant.
I have finally caught up with Z Cars and it is as good as they say, though I'm made a little jumpy by cops who chisel fags and worry about getting their fourpence back from the Home Office after calling in to report on a criminal. The Tempo Special on the Irish and the Arts was the best yet—a sort of Irish stage-door canteen type of production with all the literary stars given a brief turn. But Dominic Behan, always smiling at some secret joke, made an un-
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