... UNCONVINCING PORTRAIT THE PLAYERS surpassed their material in Ronald Duncan's short play. The Portrait, pre sented on ATV on Sunday night. Andrew Cruickshank brought ail easy authority to the leading part of an internationally famous art critic whose comment can make or break a painter overnight. Fifteen years before the play opens his opinion caused a young accountant to give up his job and ...

... CONTRASTING HARMONY DOBF.RT FARNON and his Orchestra presented Con trasts for the BBC -TV Music at Ten programme on Sunday night. Vanessa Lee scored an individual personal success with j Pick Yourself a Star, a number from an American television musical called Hi Di. The quiet rhythm of the song was enhanced by the visual presentation when Miss Lee swayed gently across the screen on a swing ...

... TeleBrieis. . . Bandleader--trumpeter Ken Rattenbury will be appearing in ABC-TV's Home Town Saturday Night programme from West Bromwich on Saturday. He will play Rockin' Chair solo. Ken's next BBC-TV date is May 7, when he will be seen in a 15-minute programme. Peter Colville has grown a moustache and beard for the new BBC-TV Children's series. Hopscotch, which begins on April 25. ...

... Manchester's New BBC-TV Studio Manchester's newly equipped studio, the BBC's first permanent one outside London, re-opens on the night of April 3 with You re Welcome!, a special programme produced by Barney Colehan and Ronnie Taylor. The studio, ...

... Michael Shepley, at present appearing with Yvonne Arnaud in Six Months' Grace. at the Phoenix, last night celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of his stage debut. He first appeared at the Grand. Hull, in 1927 as Charley Wykcham in Charley's Aunt. ...

... Symphony for Fun YOUTH has always been the hall- 1 mark of London's Festival Ballet and on that account Michael Charnlev's Symphony for Fun, so felicitously mounted upon Sym phony Number Five-and-a-Half. by Don Gillies, invariably shows off these young dancers to the best pos sible advantage. Tom Lingwood's cbstumes, flared skirts for the girls and three-quarter pants for the boys, are ...

... EDITED BY DEREK HODDINOTT Studio Talk. iiiMiMniiii News About People News About Programmes News About BBC ITV j Every Monday at 7 p.m. William Russell is seen on Channel 9 as Sir Lancelot and evenr Friday, commencing October 18 until December 20, he will be seen as Nicholas Nickleby on Channel 1. In the course of their, search for ...

... 'This Is Your Life' THE flashback of the life of Jack Train provided interesting viewing on BBC-TV on Monday, although the last few moments of the programme when he was delightedly greeted by his miniature white poodle which had been waiting for him behind the scenes were more moving and more illu minating than much of the recalling of old memories which had gone before. The ordeal of ...

... THE CHRISTMAS EVE SHOW THE best Christmas show came along on Christmas Eve via Associated-Rediffusion. It wasn't due only to the galaxy of stars which filled the bill but the deviser and director of the programme, Joan Kemp-Welch. Miss Welch is a tanuious cnar- acter, full of energy and con stantly bursting with ideas. No one stands before a plain back ground for her. Her success lies in the ...

... A SANTA FOR CHRISTMAS THE othei big Christmas show came from Associated Tele vision, and once agan it was on film and full of stars. It was also very good, though not so visually exciting as the Joan Kemp-Welch saga. lhere was a thinnish story run ning through the show, namely the search for a Santa Claus outfit for Dickie Henderson to wear at a child ren's hospital parly. There were neat ...

... 'MUSIC FOR YOU' THE LAND OF SNOW' sequence from Tchaikovsky's 'Casse-Noisette' ballet was the highlight of Eric Robinson's Music for You' programme on Christmas Night on BBC-TV. Alfred Rodrigues staged a version specially for television; it was danced by the Ballet Rambert, with Marina Svetlova and Oleg Briansky as soloists. It failed to get across, partly because the rtitire ballet was ...

... 'HENRY V' SIMPLICITY was the keynote of Peter Drews' production of Shakespeare's Henry V. which launched the B.B.C.'s ambitious Television World Theatre programme on Sunday last. Mr. Drews never lost Sight of the fact that the work was a play--to be seen on a stage, with imaginative touches of scenery such as Guy Sheppard created for this produc- tion. John Neville played the title-role ...