... The Improbable Mr. Claybill BBC, May 9. UNUSUAL, engrossing and brilliantly acted. Robert Gould should be well pleased with his play and its presentation. The trouble is that we expect anything that sounds like a fairy story to have a happy ending. But after the initial surprise it's obvious that Arnold Claybill had to come to a sad end. Obvious because Arnold is a genius and like most ...

... Bending the law to beat the criminal A Fear of Strangers ATV, May 10 IN essence a duel between two men, a white policeman and a black musician, A Fear of Strangers took us back to the classic type of television play. Chief Inspector Dyke, already under a cloud for his rough treatment of a couple of yobs, is determined to force a con fession out of a coloured musician who is suspected of murder ...

... International Cabaret BBC-2, May 9. PRESUMABLY the word international does not mean the same thing to everyone, but to me it conjures up a picture of world famous entertainers of all nationalities. In International Cabaret. Buddy Bregman seems set on making it more Atlantic than international, and in last Saturday's edition (the second) he gave us Nancy Wilson and Jack Carter as the guest ...

... Benbow Was His Name BBC-I, May 7. THE new-style documenary with contemporary music is well understood by Caryl Brahms and Ned Sherrin who were in at its birth. Not surprisingly, therefore, Benbow Was His Name was a technically successful piece of expertise. With the aid of Gordon Jackson as a narrator-cum-commentator- cum-participant we were moved painlessly from shore to ship, from ...

... A Kiss Before Dying BBC-2, May S. IRA LEVIN'S novel, A Kiss Before Dying, the story of a psychotic young man who murders two sisters and tries to marry the third in order to get in on the father's wealth. It is not easy to produce an American play in a British studio, but Peter Sasdy, directing his first BBC production, managed with the use of intermittent library shots of the real thing, ...

... The Morecambe and Wise Show ATV, May 9. MAKING people laugh out loud is a very difficult business. Attempting it by remote control via two hundred odd square inches of television screen is even more difficult. I would say Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise are currently Britain's best ponents of the art. They are superb ad-libbers. Did you see the fear in my eyes just then?* says Eric after ...

... Taxi! BBC-L May 23. IT was only because Leslie French held me by sheer projection of personality that I kept any interest through the long, slow build-up of the story in Three Bags Full Sir, the latest episode in the Taxi! series. Even so, there was a lot of padding needed to fill 50 minutes and the sub-plot involv ing Ray Broolts and Diane Aubrey did not seem to have any point other than ...

... The Andy Stewart Show BBC-1, May 24. 1 IT took raisy Anne Nodie tne young recording artist from Australia, and the versatility of Andy Stewart to save this show from dying on its feet. As the first variety series to be televised from the Scottish BBC's new Studio A it was, frankly appointing. Andy Stewart is hard to beat as a solo performer. He mimed, clowned and danced through the show in ...

... Dr. Who BBC-l, May 23. 'PHIS week the Tardis with our four heroes landed in an Aztec tomb and became embroiled in another adventure (or trouble) in probably the fastest time since th^- series beean. Before you can say Produced by Verily Lambert, Jacqueline Hill finds herself with the mantle and dignity of High Priestess, which she wears with content ment and a seeming hope that such a ...

... A Girl Like Me ATV. May 26. AN actor in his late thirties recently expressed to me his awe and admiration for the newest generation of actors and actresses. They have a relaxed confidence I took years to achieve he said This maturity of performance was outstandingly noticeable in Francesca Annis and Ian Mc- Shane in A Girl Like Me. The agonies, the joys and the ridicu lousness of young ...

... Worthwhile show all round Not quite ready for peak viewing but a Between The Lines BBC-1, May 21. WHAT an excellent little revue this was! With the aid of an economical-looking but most flexible set (for which designer Guthrie Hutton deserves the highest praise) director David Bell has evolved a style of presentation which gave pace and How. Yet tie never made me feel that his experiments ...

... Comfort for all at the Top--Gallery Has Disappeared Re-opening after Major Improvements THE ORDEAL of sitting through long operas in sweltering heat on an uncomfortable bench in the gallery at Covent Garden is something of the nast From tonieht. when the curtain rises on Das Rheingold at the Royal Opera House there will be no gallery, but one vast top tier, known as the Amphitheatre. The ...