... Save Your Play Money, ITV Any Use? SIR,--I know no better than A. L. Thompson what happens to TV play competition winners but I think he is unfair to ATV. This company promised neither to produce nor to buy the winning plays. Unlike the Granada com petition. ATV award winners retained the ownership of all the rights in their plays. Presumably ATV produce what they judge to be the best plays ...

... The 'plugs' Romney Sutton left out Equivalent SIR,--Your contributor Romney Sutton is quite correct (in his article last week) to object to the amount of free 'plugs' given on TV (and radio, too, for that matter!). But why pick on the theatre and the cinema as targets for his sniping when there is a MUCH bigger target for him to aim at so big that he probably has not seen it I refer to sport. ...

... Are Critics Honest? Sir, Half a century ago, the old actor managers found an easy way to curb the critics. They simply paid them £50 for an option on a play; sometimes a play that had not even been written. Today, the TV moguls have a different approach. They enlist t division critics as panelists, interviewers, guest critics and evert adaptors of scripts. The results are much the same. ...

... and from readers Sir, Michael Miles' recent article on Quiz Shows appeared to be less an attack on the B.B.C., than a matter of sour grapes because they had the effrontery to drop one of his shows. This was made abundantly clear by his patronising reference to the Third Programme. It is ranter signifi cant that those very people who so loudly and frequently proclaim their desire to give ...

... IT IS TIME THIS WAS EXPOSED SIR,--If you manage to wade through the falsie-fantasies the nappy-natter, and the knitting-patterns of the enclosed popular programme paper, you will notice that the majority of programmes have no writer credited--notably Probation Officer, Emergency Ward 10, Knight Errant, and No Hiding Place. In fact, NOT COUNTING all American material, all Light Entertainment ...

... Helpful Suggestion WITH the closure of the Nottingham F moire and the announcement that other Moss halls are to close for an indefinite period at Liverpool, Hanky etc.. as a keen lover of variety. I wonder if variety halls could have licences irarwed to enable them to compete with rhe cinemas and open on a Sunday. It is rea'ised variety artists need the break one day a week but hills could ...

... I AM surprised that you should publish a naive letter suggesting that BBC and the commercial com panies should set up script departments to help writers. Every professional writer is well aware that such depart ments have existed for years, carry large staffs, are efficiently organised, and are overloaded with scripts. Call in at any of them and you will see at least 5,000 scripts stacked from ...

... REPERTORY Sir,--The small town rep must not forget rts social obligations. To provide an evening's alternative to the cinema, television or the pub is not nearly enough. It must bccome the ccntre of local theatrical activity, and this must include the local amateurs. The professional theatre cannot afford to ignore the ama teurs, who could be its most loyal supporters. The vast numbers of ...

... (To signatories of recent letter on Welsh TV) I HAVE been most interested to read the recently published letter about Television in Wales and I thought you would like to know that there is. in fact, a Welsh language television programme transmitted after 5 p.m. For the last year our Land of Song on Sunday even ings has enjoyed a rewarding high viewage, not only in our home region but ...

... Care Television Today seems to be the only newspaper that cares what happens to Dave King. How the national newspapers kept quiet about his success and his progress'. I'm glad to know that there is one paper that is at least interested enough to keep me in the picture. Yours sincerely. JAMES BENSON. New Malden. ...

... McKinty Replies Sir, Mr. Magor's remarks in a letter last week, criticising my report of a speech by Mr. Peter Bartholomew, TWW's station manager, are quite unfounded. It is ridiculous to suggest that I had been primed by ITV publicity to give a glowing account of the lecture. The TWW Press officer at Cardiff is a very capable and experienced pressman and knows that this sort of thing just ...

... Are Ad Mags Useless? Sir, I wonder if there is any way of really checking whether people watch the various advertising magazines. Personally, and I am quite an avid television viewer, I find that I use the opportunity of the advertising magazine to do any little thing there is to do. If there are many more people like myself, and also the many friends I have, who watch a pro gramme and then ...