... films and short run serials. But the Corporation has failed to match ITV's top popular dramas Peak Practice and Heartbeat. Speaking in the in-house journal Ariel, BBC1 controller Alan Yentob admitted that there had been underperformance in popu lar drama ...

... Written by Raymond Thompson, whose credits include Howards' Way and Squadron, the series will feature British and French actors speaking in their native tongues. The French ver sion will be dubbed, while episodes shown in the UK will be subtitled. Casting will ...

... are we?) and the short, back-to- normal piece after the General's funeral. An uncomfortable double-entendre, as the widow speaks about her grandson's violin-playing: It's going to be perfect. It's worthwhile. It's always worthwhile. Amazingly, thanks ...

... num erous that at least one Dora Reisser was omitted from the Radio Times credits, walked through their stereotyp ed parts, speaking their familiar lines with an all too obvious suspicion that they'd heard them before somewhere. Which, of course, they had ...

... on in hope, modernising herself in both looks and spirit as she goes on her way rebuilding her private life. Even before he speaks, Robert Stephens' somnolent form has epitomised Jack's character. Sandra Ruskin plays the friend San dra with glamorous zest ...

... ly effective, but only the first time it happened. The brave reliance on leng thy close-ups in which each character in turn speaks directly to camera worked each time. Adam Faith, whose acting was one of the pleasures of this half-hour, is espe cially good ...

... service. Created by the IBA, this new service would be designed to complement the existing independent local radio services. Speaking last week, the IBA's direc tor of radio, John Thompson, said that the aim of the independent national radio service (INR) ...

... deregulation gets a stranglehold on British television, one of the commercial network's leading executives warned this week. Speaking at the launch of ITV's flagship arts series, The South Bank Show, Mclvyn Bragg, controller of arts at London Weekend Television ...

... Peter Vaughan, who played the Public Prose cutor, could not help but give some interpretation of the words he was given to speak. The way a man walks into a room gives some introduction to the kind of man he is. As a plea for freedom of speech in a country ...

... that the BBC won't react in the same way, he said. We have tried to arrange another meeting so it is not as if we are not speaking to each other. But there does seem to be a gulf between us and it is unclear how we are going to bridge it. Members are ...

... equally sure that audiences have had a surfeit of domestic series and are ready for a swing away from this kind of thing. Speaking for my own sex, anyway, I would say please take us out of the kitchen and give us some glamour for a chance SUSAN KAY CAST ...

... pains of labour and her voice was swollen with hunger for the anaesthetic, it was imperious and an octave lower than a normal speaking voice. Such passion in a perform ances contributes to making her a star. The moods that were shuttling along the lines of ...