TV fiasco
Sir: Christopher Booker is a valuable commentator but he was intolerably smug
over the BBC television satire ,show That Was The Week. . . etc, hardly less so than 'his old friend' Bernard Levin. In these satirical fiestas unoriginal minds attacked obvious stale targets often with a grubby vulgarity and crudeness that would have done credit to an entertainment put on in a borstal institution. Petty feuds and spite were indulged (such as in the continuous doltish attacks on Lord Snow) while Great Britain's fundamental ailments and failings were left unscourged, unmentioned even. (When were its arts ever in a more bogus or sham state than in the mid-'sixties?) Mr Booker claims that his and BBC television's efforts brought down the Macmillan regime in a shower of grouse feathers'. Cu! bono? His own devastating account of the Wilsonian sequel printed in the Spectator in June shows what barren fruits grew on the satirescorched earth, so even on the narrow political field The Week. . . was a talentwasting fiasco.
G. Reichardt 13 Hanover Court, Wyebank View, Tutshill, Chepstow, Gwent
Previous page
