SIR,—ITV has surrounded itself with such a dense smokescreen of
expensive public relations that Taper can perhaps be forgiven for losing his way in it.
Most of the programmes he quoted last week as not being interrupted by commercials are less than fifteen minutes long; and all, I think, are less than twenty. This would make it difficult for even the most profit-hungry programme contractor to thrust his wretched 'End of Part One' captions into the middle of them. (Not that they don't manage it some- times. For example, there was the recent solemn ITN newscast on the Gatwick disaster, which was inter- rupted to show a Lux commercial.) Taper should also note that the programmes he mentions are all off-peak programmes. It often pays programme contractors handsomely not to advertise in off-peak periods, because their fairy godmother, the Authority, then allows them to make up for lost time at peak hours. In this way, by not interrupting 4 few of the shortest off-peak programmes, they can not only increase their profits but win the innocent plaudits of Taper for their nobility of soul.—Yours faithfully,
CHRISTOPHER MAYHEW
[Taper writes: 'I am not, and was not in my article, concerned with the merits of ITV programmes, about which, as one who has watched a good deal more of the stuff than Mr. Mayhew, I do not need his instruc- tion. l was concerned solely with Mr. Mayhew's accuracy. If he meant to say that no programme longer than twenty minutes is without commercials, he should have said so.'--Editor, Spectator.]
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