Television
On location
Wendy Cope
'ID ear Wendy Cope. You will no doubt some time over the next month be reviewing The Ginger Tree, which is start- ing on BBC 1.' No doubt? This letter, with its little hint of moral pressure, is the kind of thing that gets up my nose. If a television company had been foolish enough to send it, I wouldn't have gone within a mile of The Ginger Tree (9.05 P.m., Sunday). But this was just the Publisher of the book putting his oar in. `It is a really wonderful book', he goes On, 'and I have never yet met anyone who hasn't raved about it.' Goodness me. And I have never yet met anyone who's even mentioned it.
The trouble with Sunday evenings is that they have these serials on BBC 1 and they clash with London's Burning (ITV, 9.05 p.m.). It's high time London's Burning was mentioned in this column because I've enjoyed it very much whenever I've watch- ed it. Tensions and rivalries build up at the fire station and have to be put aside the minute the bell rings. The action, when it comes, is exciting and more to my liking than car chases, guns and punch-ups.
With a video, of course, you can watch two programmes that are broadcast simul- taneously, as long as you don't answer the telephone. I hate doing it, especially on Sunday evenings, when any phone calls are likely to be personal rather than business. But this Sunday I managed to see Lon- don's Burning and the first episode of The Ginger Tree. It wasn't bad. The part I liked best was the train journey from Vladivos- tok to Manchuria. The idea of travelling via Vladivostok has tremendous remantic appeal and, funnily enough, the knowledge that it was all filmed on the Isle of Man didn't spoil it at all.
Summer's Lease (BBC 2), on the other hand, was really filmed in Tuscany and it relied far too heavily on its location. Episode three was all about a horse-race in Siena that didn't have anything to do with the plot. It's OK to make travel program- mes about Italy but in this case we had been led to expect drama. When we reached the denouement in episode four, it turned out that there was nothing much to 'I assume it's Charles Rennie's mackintosh.' denoue. The principal charm of Summer's Lease, or so I'm told, is supposed to be the character of Haverford Downs, an ageing writer who boasts about all the women he has slept with. He didn't charm me.
Actually it takes quite a lot to charm me, in my present mood. Anyone who can make me laugh is doing well. The people involved in Smith and Jones (BBC 1, 9.30 p.m., Thursday) managed it with their send-up of After Dark. After Dark (Chan- nel 4, late Saturday night) is just about the most boring television programme ever invented. To be fair, I have only watched it once — anyone who watched it a second time would need to have their head ex- amined. In the Smith and Jones version, they were discussing the arts. I wish I could tell you the name of the actress who took part in this sketch because her portrayal of a woman artist was very observant. She was the earth-mother type. The hennaed hair, the ethnic clothes, the impassioned talk about living and giving and quilting and smocking all served to remind me why I try so hard to look like a businesswoman. If I haven't taken off for Vladivostok by then, I'll watch Smith and Jones again next Thursday.
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