... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... Dermot Walsh, Lyn Ashley and Viola Keats in On A Clear Day You Can See Canterbury at the Royal, Stratford East. ...

... 'Tonight' need have no worries about this rival HERE AND NOW THIS column first reviewed Here & Now in mid-November when the programme was still very new. The opinion ventured then was that if it were intended as competition to Tonight, then BBC-tv need have no worries. And now, three months later, there is no reason at all to change that opinion. By switching channels after Here Now ...

... 'Armchair' series ends with a BANG! THE RANK AND FILE ROD SERLING'S drama about racketeering in an American union--the last ABC Armchair Theatre production until the Equity strike ends certainly saw the present series out with a bang. The disturbing thing is that though the play is fictional, its theme is very much fact. Senate investigating commit tees have been just as power less as the one ...

... 111 ■Hill THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRESENT BY JOAN HEILBRONER (WORLD'S WORK, 16s. 6d.) UNDER THE RED ROBE, NATIONAL VELVET (3s. 6d.) THE NEW NOAH, A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST (4s. 6d.) PENGUIN BOOKS SEMOLINA SILKPAWS COMES TO CATSTOWN BY GLADYS WILLIAMS (METHUEN, 9s. 6d.) RED IS NEVER A MOUSE BY E. CLIFFORD (WORLD'S WORK, 12s. 6d.) MERRY CHRISTMAS! (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 12s. 6d.) TINTIN IN TIBET BY ...

... IMlilHI WATERCOLOURS FROM THE CECIL HIGGINS ART GALLERY AGNEW'S I SUPPOSE I HAVE DRIVEN THROUGH BEDFORD at least a dozen times in the past few years but I have to confess that I have never stopped long enough to visit the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery there. If you ask me why not, I can only echo Dr. Johnson's reply to the lady who asked why, in his dictionary, he defined the pastern as the knee ...

... iff Willi IT IS NOT CERTAIN WHAT KIND OF GESTURE Mr. Osborne intends to make by giving his two plays this overall title. It is even less certain how grateful England ought to be. Each play is devoted to an attack on one of the playwright's public bugbears: the fact of royalty and the theory of Press corruption. In The Blood Of The Bambergs, directed by Mr. John Dexter, it is a royal marriage ...

... Mil i Willi MUL1IM liiuBJUDiluMQI) ZOOT AT RONNIE SCOTT'S BY ZOOT SIMS TUBBS IN N.Y. BY TUBBY HAYES THAT'S IT! BY BOOKER ERVIN ORNETTE BY ORNETTE COLEMAN THINGS ARE GETTING BETTER BYCANNONBALLADDERLEY THE RESULTS OF AN INTERESTING EXCHANGE OF British and American musicians have been perpetuated by two Fontana albums released early this summer. Tenor player Zoot Sims spent a month at Ronnie ...

... Anthony Cookman PANTOMIME STILL DRAWS A MORE NEARLY CLASSLESS AUDIENCE THAN the theatre can get together for any other show. It ranges from excitedly squealing children from all parts of London Town (or any other) taking probably their first peep at the stage, to comfortable worldlings who have come to hear the old jokes once again and reckon any that may happen to be newish as negligible. In ...