... Time bomb that never exploded BY ANGELA MORETON LIKE the short story, the short play tends to be less than explicit. Last Wednesday's Thirty Minute Theatre (BBC- 2) Diary of an Encounter, by Leo Lehmann, followed this rule of thumb and relied more on the creation of mood rather than the strong bones of a plot to sustain it One of the inherent risks of mood pieces is that the audience they ...

... Highly efficient and entertaining series BY ANGELA MORETON SOFTLY, SOFTLY (BBC- 1) is one of those highly efficient and entertaining series that we are apt to take for granted. Each week it comes up with a story that is gripping, characterisation that has insight and acting that is first-class. It operates within a well-defined framework, but it is never cramped and always has plenty of ...

... Fine acting in Poe's horror tale BY ANN PURSER Detective: The Murders in the Rue Morgue, BBC- 1, September I. THE detective story,The Murders in the Rue Morgue, by Edgar Allan Poe, proved an exciting end to the present Detective series. This has been a good series in a quiet way, ranging from modern traditional to flamboyant baroque, and if nothing outstandingly brilliant has come up, there ...

... Harmony exact and wholly successful BY J. D. S. HAWORTH THE slot for BBC-2's Thirty Minute Theatre--conceived in economy and liberated through discipline--gives unique opportunities to producer and writer which few have failed during the present season. The short story form on television can be an excellent antidote to the general trend in drama which seems more and more to indulge length ...

... ON THE BRADEN BEAT WITH TW3 on vacation this twenty-minute spot from ATV had its chance last Saturday night to add sizeable numbers of viewers to its regular following--it failed. The most heard criticism of TW3 was that it contained too many amateurs and lacked the professional touch. Well any one who was looking at this programme for the first time must have wished that its bit ing, brassy ...

... Second documentary feature from ATV a 'let-down' 'Mass of material restless camera work' THE FOUR FREEDOMS A TV's second world survey Freedom to Wor ship (February 18th) was a fussy, fidgetty production which did not seem to have a clear idea of where it was going or what it was leading up to. It jumped from continent to continent, from religion to religion and back again, leaving the ...

... Funny dialogue not enough in uneven comedy--but Diana gives it some style The Hothouse ABC, Sunday, December 13 LIKE The Cherry on the Top, which was a product of the same team of writer Donald Churchill, director Guy Verney and producer Leonard White, The Hothouse proved? to be an amusing tritle that was never quite as amusing as it was always promising to oe. mere must oe a wnaiy iunny ...

... Frankie Howerd BBC-1, Friday, December II A RED letter week for the BBC: Frankie Howerd set out single-handed to save the BBC for the Tam ratings-- or the Tam ratings for the BBC. Not quite single-handed, for he is assisted by Alan Simpson and Ray Gallon, that protean writing? team who did the job before with Steptoe and Son, and before j that with Tony Hancock's show. They should succeed too. ...

... A Day by the Sea BBC-2, Thursday, December 10 I HAVE to confess that I am never in sympathy with plays in which all the characters accept failure and drift along with it. I can admire the writing. I can admire the acting. But I look all the time for the spark of hope and when it doesn't? come I look for other reasons for disagreeing with the message. I know we were supposed to see hope for the ...

... Excellent direction to match excellent script THE BACHELORS BBC-2, Thursday, April 1 MURIEL SPARK has a deceptively simple writing style, limpid and economical. She writes good dialogue, and that makes her novels unusually satisfactory for dramatisation. Add to that the more solid virtues of strong theme, plot and characterisation, and an individual and imaginative view or life, and the ...

... Re-enter the good ghost story REVIEWS Realm of Error ABC, March 1. NOW I know what I've been missing for a long time! A good strong ghost story with enough credibility to have me biting my nails and jumping at the creak of a chair. Add to that an equally strong story of human relationships. and you have the bonus treat of Realm of Error. Did Jerome Linder really succeed in calling up the ...

... Caters weil for an escapist audience now it is simpler CROSSROADS ATV, Friday, September 17 WHEN I looked at this show last January I observed that it was too complicated, required too many scene changes to accommodate shreds of different story lines, and that the director's shifts from scene to scene were slow and awkward. After eight months Hazel Adair's and Peter Ling's saga of motel life ...