... DEADLINE MIDNIGHT PRINTERS'ink was running and the presses rolling to herald the return of Deadline Midnight (Saturday, March 11. ATV). I his series held a reputation for being one of the best seen on ITV. But Saturday's open ing episode was not as good as some seen in the past There was a lot of unnecessary ill-feeling between Daily Globe Editor Joe Dunn (Peter Vaughan), who was handing ...

... SUNDERLAND 'MOTHER GOOSE' THANKS to an enterprising Civic Theatre Committee, under the chairmanship of Councilor Leo Harper, the townspeople of Sunderland are having the benefit of another traditional pantomime at the Civic for the third year running since the local aulhority took over from Moss Empires. And they are to be congratulated on tbe choice of Mother Goose, presented by Joe ...

... Flustered camera work --but authentic THE INTRIGUE THE BBC's Studio 4 team adapted a novel by Jacques Natanson for the latest of their current series and, since Natanson is also the author of La Ronde and Le Plaisir, the same bitter-sweet atmosphere was to be expected. What was not expected was that an English translation and cast could do justice to such an essentially French theme. With ...

... The Room BBC, February 21 IM ALWAYS filled with admiration for the way James MacTaggart and his Merry Men attempt the impossible and so often achieve it. Unfortunately for them, co matter how much freedom they gain from tearing up the rule books they are still. trapped by the need to fill the half-hour slot. I should like to see The Room repeated, with about five minutes edited out from the ...

... Club Time BBC, February 21. CLUB entertainment is the northern re-emergence of music hall in modern dress. The chairman is now a compare but the beer is still beer. After Stars and Carters, Club Time must be a cert. It is as successful as one entertainment medium can hope to be in creating the atmosphere of another and the ratings thrive on people watching other people watching a show and ...

... NEWS FROM THE GUILD Keeping drama alive by ERIC PAICE BRITAIN has the highest television drama output of any nation in the world. Just as the world's film centre has now shifted from Hollywood to Europe, so has the North American continent relinquished its early lead in tv plays. Not only does Britain now produce more drama, it pro duces better and more exciting drama. The standard of series ...

... Production worthy of The Seagull's status First-rate drama from BBC-2 BY KARI ANDERSON 'T'HF. Seagull occupies a unique place in theatre history: it was the first Chekhov play performed at the Moscow Art Theatre, an event commemorated by the seagull motif on the theatre's curtains. The BBC-2 Theatre 625 production, in George Calderon's translation, edited for television by Rose mary Hill ...

... STV show has a tired look BY GORDON IRVING Time for Tennent, STV, nightly at II pm. WHAT a paucity of ideas the commercial station at Glasgow's Theatre Royal has! The idea of a nightly chat-and-music show, hosted by the amiable, ultra- courteous Bill Tennent, is not new and is already an overworked, though usually viewable. format. For this series, however, the producers have come up with ...

... Not so wild BY JAMES TOWLER Jokers Wild, Yorkshire, July 9 THE big advantage of presenting panel games on television is that they are comparatively inexpen sive to stage. There are no lavish sets, no orchestras to be engaged and no special material to be written. Jokers Wild is essentially a joke telling competition between two teams of three comedians who do their best to interrupt each ...

... Surprisingly not just a carbon copy Why Jo you want to be a Doctor Doctor in the House. London Weekend, July 12. BY MARJORIE BILBOW IT WAS with a good deal of apprehension that I sat down to watch Doctor in the House. Richard Gordon's larky saga of medical students can hardly be said to have suffered from under-exposure during the past 20 years, and its choice as a new comedy series seemed ...

... Material needed paring BY JOHN LAWRENCE Strangers in The Night, BBC-2. July 12 BARRY HUMPHRIES is quoted in Radio Times as saying My Golden Rule is not to begin by thinking what's funny to the public, but to do what amuses me, and hope it makes others laugh. People who think like this run the great risk of ing self-indulgent, as well as being very unamusing to all ex cept the select few ...

... Fast and funny variety show BY ALICE FRICK THE Sunday night show from the Palladium with which ATV have filled the peak week-end hour has gone on for so long that any change is better than a rest. Piccadilly Palace was certainly better and more than a rest. With Millicent Martin in charge and a lively script by !>id Green and Dick Hills it was a fast and funny variety show. If I m ...