Television
High marks
Peter Levi
he BBC was close to its best. The Last 1 Night of the Proms (BBC1), elegantly conducted by Kenneth Johnson from the front row, was an orgy of good temper. Young men like Kipps and Mr Polly, even to straw hats and non-collegiate blazers, sighed and swayed and chanted their hearts out. Arthur Sullivan may lack zip, but to 'Rule Britannia' and 'Jerusalem' they sang. They waved flags, teddy bears, banners and in fact everything but the Princess of Wales's new baby. But this is not an innocent programme; it was constructed with an unassuming technical virtuosity. John Mason, for the lighting, and Brian Strugnell, for the sound, deserve to be remembered by all the hundred million viewers it commands. I would sooner watch the last night of the Proms than the storming of the Winter Palace.
Of course teleVision has its longueurs, even in a good ten days. Sunday offered the choice of an 83-year-old Wagnerian conductor, a blind and deaf bicycle repair- er, a 'darts and general knowledge game' and the Dean of Emmanuel on religion, who no doubt partook of all three. But when Alec Clifton-Taylor on BBC2 beam- ed at Cirencester and chortled at Whitby, he thereby restored commonsense and aes- thetic values at a single stroke. He is the ideal companion for armchair travellers.
The Freud series (BBC2) is addictive, and it has some wonderful character acting; prospective customers may be re- lieved to hear that the intellectual level so far is about that of Dallas or Dynasty, intriguing but undemanding. Gardeners' World (BBC2) did a programme on back- ache, in which a boffin from Surrey de- monstrated that cunning and-lazy diggers suffer least, and the best spade is a Cornish long-handled shovel, except for the bof- fin's favourite invention, which had bicycle handlebars and an irrelevant-looking en- gine that ticked. The recommended flow- ers were mostly more terrifying than the spade work: red Kaufmanniana tulips, red lilies, pink dwarf almond, Helichrysum Hot Bikini and Rudbeckia Marmalade. But this programme has an underlying humus of humour. Next week we shall hear how to grow giant vegetables, which prom- ises to be really funny.
Bookmark (BBC2) has come back with Ian Hamilton as presenter. In the past I have been dubious about him as a critic and biographer, though he has certainly been the most distinguished editor of his generation, erring towards severity, which is an extremely good fault. He has one of the coolest and most interesting minds in the business of criticism, and Bookmark under him is going to be thrilling as no book programme on television has ever been before. As a critic, I think he is at least as good as Professor Ricks. As a presenter he seemed nervous at first and smiled only at the word pornography. But his programme was brilliant beyond ex- pectation.
Martin Amis was the first guest. The treatment was varied, coherent and highly intelligent. It made Martin Amis much more interesting than one had thought him to be, though 'urban, sentimental, porno- graphic and short-term' is not what I look for in the heroes of novels. Martin Amis spoke honestly and to the point. 'Most of my writing just comes from walking around cities . . . Motivation has pretty well had it in the novel. People just don't behave for intelligible reasons any more . . . Money is the first value that gets to you unless you have culture to stave it off. I find this view as fascinating as the Elizabethans and Jacobeans found dramatic atheism. Agatha Christie, who has 600 million readers, appeared pale by comparison.
The piece about Peter Ackroyd's Eliot was one of the best television programmes I have ever seen. Both as research and as entertainment it was thrilling, and to me at least completely unexpected. It summoned up the heat and suffering of 1921 with painful clarity, and Helen Gardner read and interpreted Eliot's poetry and his change of style with an authority one seldom sees. I wish Ian Hamilton would make a full-length film, or a series, about T. S. Eliot. Meanwhile, we shall be glued to Bookmark. In his hands, it is a powerful instrument and I hope he uses it wisely.
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