Masked balls
As Mr Ingrams knows, I do not often find value in his TV columns. However, may I warmly support his comments on Aeschylus (15 October)?
But there is a further point, not made by Mr Ingrams: the voices that one could hear from behind their absurd masks all seemed to speak in the appalling dialects which one now associates with the new BBC 'English', with its relentless dedication to mis- pronouncing and mis-stressing every word and phrase it possibly can. Why? Did the producers really think that the denizens of ancient Argos spoke in that petulant intonation which so pains and offends the ear each time one turns on the News, BBC or the rest?
If it was realism that Sir Peter Hall was after, why didn't he simply hire a bunch of Greek waiters to mouth pidgin Gringlais? Alistair Horne
21 St Petersburgh Place, London W2
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