Television
Naturally obvious
Wendy Cope
reativity is something of a mystery,' said presenter Peter Fuller at the beginning of Naturally Creative (Channel 4). An hour and a half later creativity was still just as Much of a mystery, although viewers may have been a little better informed about such matters as cave painting, birdsong and computer art. Much of the programme was pedestrian and obvious, the sort of thing that would be quite acceptable if one were watching it with a class of nine-year-olds. Most of the people who tuned in on Sunday evening probably didn't need to be told that music is the most abstract form of human expression, or that there is some connection between drum rhythms and the human pulse. However, there were some entertaining episodes. One of these was provided by Desmond Mofris and his chimpanzee, Congo. Congo, seen on film, was a very keen painter, who screamed if anyone interrupted him while he was work- ing on a picture. By the end of his life he had reached the same stage of develop- ment as a toddler who draws circles with something inside them.
Another interesting ccintributor was Pe- ter Atkins, a physical chemist from Ox- ford, whose gloomy view of the universe happens to coincide with my own. 'We are the children of chaos and the deep struc- ture of change is decay. . . . Gone is purpose. All that is left is direction. This is the bleakness we have to face.' Mr Atkins has expressed the view that poetry is a kind of brain failure, an opinion that clearly worried Peter Fuller, although I couldn't help finding it rather likeable. Thinking it over, I reflected that my favourite poets face the bleakness of everything just as squarely as Mr Atkins, and without appa- rent failure of the brain. I wonder if he has read any Housman.
When Naturally Creative finished, The Royal Variety Performance was overrun- ning on ITV. A sweating Tom Jones was joined by a whole stageful of show-biz people, who sang the national anthem and smiled their show-biz smiles as they applauded Her Majesty. Poor woman.
The big event on BBC 1 last week was the Children in Need appeal. This seems to me to be an instance of the end justifying the means, so I won't go on too much about excitable young television people shouting into microphones and interrupt- ing members of the public in mid-sentence.
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The two main presenters, Terry Wogan and Sue Cook, rose above this standard of behaviour and I was very taken with the cartoon teddy bear, who clapped his paws whenever a new total was announced. During the broadcast mysterious captions moved across the screen, impressing on me my ignorance of the modern world: MICRONETIPRESTEL USERS TO DONATE OR INTERVIEW STARS KEY IN *CIN OR PUD- SEY. They are a good bunch, these Micronet/Prestel users. By half-way through Friday evening they had given £20,000, but it seemed they hadn't yet donated any stars.
After the Nine O'Clock News came the annual feature on Children of Courage, presented by Esther Rantzen. If she was a little strident in some of the interviews, it was forgivable because she was evidently close to tears more than once. The chil- dren, especially those chosen for their bravery in dealing with disability or serious illness, were very impressive and very moving. I was particularly struck by the wisdom of a 14-year-old boy, one of a pair of twins who are putting up a tremendous fight against cystic fibrosis. Asked if he had any advice to offer others, he said, 'If you don't have fun, you get miserable and you get ill.' Edwina Currie should pay some attention to that.
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