MARGINAL COMMENT By HAROLD NICOLSON S IR WILLIAM HALEY Is a
wise man and therefore reticent. When he does make some pronouncement we may be sure that it is based upon a careful planning of policy and a precise calculation of probabilities. I admit that I was startled when he informed us the other day that the B.B.C. propose to invest within the next three years as much as £4,250,000 on the development of television. Being one of those who believe ardently in the independence of the B.B.C., I was delighted that he should have volunteered such a statement on the very eve of the publication of the Beveridge Report ; as a statement, it seemed to me both romantic and autonomous. Sir William hopes, before the end of 1954, to provide the British public with as many as eight new television transmitters. He estimates that when these are in action the television service will be available to as many as 85 per cent. of the citizens of this island. Although the present television licences do not exceed 600,000, he calculates that within three years this figure will have risen to 1,575,000. I have little doubt that he is. correct in this calculation. In the United States television has already become a popular rage, and the number of viewers increases monthly by leaps and bounds ; there is no reason at all why this fireside movie should not become equally popular in the United Kingdom. Whether or no this new medium should be entrusted to a separate Corporation of its own, and even finance itself by a carefully controlled system of commercial advertisement, is a matter which must have engaged the consideration of Lord Beveridge and his gifted colleagues. What is certain is that tele- vision will become in future the most popular of all mediums of entertainment and communication. The perfection of this, to me, incomprehensible device is also valuable for purposes of scientific investigation and national defence. I rejoice, therefore, that Sir William should be thinking rapidly and on so wide a scale. There is no harm in these days if the ideas of someone, somewhere, somehow become Napoleonic.
* * * * Mr. George Barnes, the new Director of Television, has also made some significant comments. He informed us that the B.B.C. do not for the moment intend to enlarge the present programme- time of thirty hours a week. His aim, so he assured us, is not quantity but quality: that assuredly is a noble aim. .I should have wished, however, that he had seen fit to inform us in greater detail in what directions this " quality " is to be improved and for what type of audience all this sweetness and light are intended. When television was first invented it was assumed that this new device would become the toy of the idle rich. Today the rich have become impoverished, and are so busy earning their living that they have little time for toys. Even the most casual observer will have noted today that the television aerials, while infrequent in Belgravia, are as thick as chimney-pots in the suburbs and small towns ; there is scarcely a village within fifty miles of London with- out its H. Mr. Barnes assures us that " audience research " (a sinister expression) showed that 68 per cent. of the holders of television licences earned Jess than £12 10s. a week. This is a significant social fact, indicating excellently the effect of the dis- tribution of income. But it is also a fact that will provide Mr. Barnes and his staff with many headaches in achieving the standard of " quality " that they have at heart. My sympathies go out to them in the problem that they will have to surmount if their success is to be complete.
* * * * We may assume that the industrious men and women who plot and plan our television programmes are aware that this form of visual communication will have a more immediate and provocative effect upon its audience than the old aural, transmission—segnius irritant animos demizsa per aurem quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus. We may assume also that, realising' the heavy responsi- bility -thereby incumbent on them, they will. be conscious of the educative opportunities offered by this communicative medium. Even as the B.B.C. in their aural transmissions have widened and raised the popular taste for music, so also should television be able to convey to the average viewer some conception at least of the meaning of the visual arts. A series of illustrated talks, delivered, for instance, by an able expositor tuch as Sir Kenneth Clark, should arouse interest in even the most weary and intract- able viewer. I see no reason why an architectural expert, such as Mr. Summerson or Mr. Betjeman, should not display and explain to viewers some of the more interesting buildings in our great cities ; the ordinary citizen is often unaware of the signi- ficance, and even of the existence, of beautiful buildings in his own home town. He has never troubled to differentiate between what is beautiful and what is drab, and should not become indignant if assisted to notice these matters for himself. Some attempts have already been made to indicate by amusing comparisons the differ- ence between good and bad taste in ornament and decoration. Mr. Wyndham Gooden the other day gave a most illuminating talk by delicately displaying in front of the transmitter some of the agreeable, or revolting, objects submitted as suitable " souvenirs " of the Festival of Britain. Gardening, zoology, science, invention provide fields of unlimited scope for these factual demonstrations. I earnestly hope that our television planners, when they have spent their four and a quarter million pounds, will not be frightened ot providing such instruction.
Their difficulties, I fully realise, are great. The £12 10s. a week audience do not want to be instructed : they want to be entertained. Tired as they are after a long day's work, they desire only to relax in the evening, and they resent being asked to exercise their minds. For them entertainment means " variety," and it is here that Mr. George Barnes encounters the greatest enemy to " quality." It is not only that the several trades unions are difficult and exacting, it is not merely that the best performers are otherwise employed, it is also that the standard of English " variety " has declined sadly since the old music-hall days. I find it impossible even to glance at the several shows, dancing clubs, telescopes, kaleidoscopes and cabarets that are at present televised ; they make me wince in shame. It must be remembered also that television imposes upon the performer a greater degree of self-sacrifice than is entailed by any sound broadcast. He has to travel a considerable distance ; he may have to submit to the humiliation of having his face powdered and his eyebrows darkened ; he has to sit there smiling winsomely into a searchlight while cameras manoeuvre round him like howitzer-batteries ; isolated in that huge hangar in front of a pitiable rectangle of stage scenery he must appear calm, comradely and cool. It is astonishing to me that so many prominent people, such as the reserved but fluent heroes who figure on Friday evenings in " In the News," can endure these ordeals.
* * It may be for this reason that television has so far been unable to discover its stars. I admit that, since the retirement of Lord Reith, the B.B.C. have not been associated with any personality as impressive as that' of Muffin the Mule. The latter, with his com- bination of self-assurance and.modesty, with his alternating moods of chattering charm and humble contrition, is the most entrancing of all puppets. But I do not believe that the future of television can be found in the exploitation, however imaginative, of fantasy ; it resides in the exploitation of fact. Its news-reels are, I any glad to hear, to become more frequent, and I trust that, in spite of the expense, more outside broadcasts will be given. Let us get away from the enclosed studio and portray life upon this earth. If the ordinary viewer dislikes talks and teaching, then let us have more round-table discussions. Let him be shown real people and real things,- Only by such methods, I am sure, can this tremendous instrument rise to the level of its tremendous responsibility.
Previous page
