... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... Big contrast in styles BY ANN PURSER Val Doonican, BBC -I, November 30. Star of the Week, BBC -2, December I. I WATCHED two musical entertainment shows at the weekend-- Val Doonican's and Johnny Harris's-- and they couldn't have been more different. Val Doonican's style is not un like that of Andy Williams in fact it is very like and this has not gone unobserved by pro ducer John Ammonds. The ...

... BY MARJORIE BILBOW Show of the Week, BBC -2, May 26 ONE thing's for sure. Roy Hudd's versatile but hitherto undisciplined talent has matured remarkably during recent months. His 50-minute show demonstrated that he has acquired the self-control that he lacked before, and with that self-control has come poise and a command of his audience. This command was particularly in evidence when he ...

... Frothy reminder that life can be good fun BY ANGELA MORETON THERE are many grounds on which BBC-1's The Very Merry Widow is appealing, quite apart from Moira Lister's chic and Alan Melville's wit. Among them are the undeniable facts that this show has no message, makes no social comment oblique or otherwise, does not set out to shock unless it's those who believed that anachronisms like ...

... Effective Horsemanship (David Rendel, 4 gns.) is an impressive book, whether one looks at it from the point of view of arrangement, illustration, or the advice it gives. Highly practical, it has broad scope, covering dressage, three-day event training, jumping and polo. The author, G. N. Jackson, CMG, OBE, hunted in Leicestershire at the age of eight on an inadequately schooled pony, went ...

... Toughest of all writing assignments is the club or company history-- especially if it has to please a committee before it sees the light of publishing day. Kevin FitzGerald, in tackling the 100 years plus of the Farmers Club, faced a pretty impossible task. To turn the pub lished papers, presented to club members between 1 844 to 1 967 into a readable book wouid have taxed the resources of ...

... A well worn theme BY ALICE FRICK THE most welcome aspect of the return of Public Eye (ABC) is its star, Alfred Burke. I like his long troubled face, and the way he mooches around with hands in mac pockets. Frank Marker is a quiet in vestigator, available at a small fee. He solves minor crimes through knowledge of the en virons and their denizens. The series relies on involvement and ...

... Intelligent magazine for children BY JOHN BLAKE Tickertape. London Weekend. November 24. THE last in the present series of Tickertape went out on Sunday. This intelligent magazine programme for children had a steady, calm tempo, and a refreshing absence of the frantic fun-at-all-costs atmosphere which dogs some children's shows. It treated youngsters as rational beings and put before them a ...