... Peer Gynt BBC-2, September 26 by Michael Kittermasler IT looks as if we axe in for another round of the classics and when these are dished up in contempory idiom the relevant criterion by which they should be judged is what they have to say to us about the present. Of all Ibsen's plays Peer Gynt, that poetic fantasy wovei. from Norwegian folklore, is, paradoxically, more relevant to our ...

... Dora LWT, September 29 by James Towler IT MAY seem ungracious to say that I don't really go for comediennes, even when they are as talented and gifted as Dora Bryan. But even when taking this prejudice into account there seemed little to commend in Conversation Piece the first of a new series in which Miss Bryan is cast as a scatter-brained widow trying to make ends meet by taking on ...

... Saturday Variety ATV, February 12 by James Towler THIS was the third Saturday Variety I have watched and I am beginning to warm to the series. One of the advantages of live transmission is that changes can be made from week to week and there is no doubt that there have been some tinct improvements in the show. Certainly my initial complaint of a lack of variety is no longer valid. Indeed, ...

... The Moonstone BBC-1, February 13 by Graham Clarke THE BBC has a long and honourable record of dramatisations of famous classics as series, most notably, perhaps, with Charles Dickens. If it were not for the memory of such excellent predecessors The Moonstone would probably quaury nigner tnan it does. Hugh Leonard has written a fine, straightforward precis of the long and tortuously in ...

... An unenlivened and unenlightening piece by Philip Barker Thirty-Minute Theatre, Did Your Nanny Come From Bergen? BBC -2, October 9. DID Your Nanny Come From Bergen? asked Miss Shelagh Delaney in the title of her first play for television in the Thirty Minute Theatre series on Friday last. Well, I never had a nanny, so the enquiry held no personal significance for me--and neither did this ...

... Flaws but had something touching and truthful by Brendan Hennessy The Exiles, Jennie, Yorkshire, October 11. JENNY is exiled first because it makes a neat title for Ray Jenkins's trlogy, of which it is the first play, and secondly because she is mentally accomplished beyond her qualifications and circumstances. At 28 she works in a library and is trapped by her willing dis position into ...

... Tarbuck's Luck BBC-1, April 8 by Graham Clarke IN THE theme song for his new starring vehicle Jimmy Tarbuck sings of himself as Lucky Jim, but my feeling is that he was trying his luck too far. This was my first extended experience of Jimmy Tarbuck as an entertainer and I found it difficult to understand his un doubted popularity as a come dian, and hoped that, for his sake, he was on this ...

... Man in the House No Exit, BBC-1, August 16 by Graham Clarke ONE good thing about this drama series is that it has provided a fair amount of variety in its plays and has not sunk into the kind of rut that its generic title might have dug for it. Having said so much one has to reflect that Man in the House, the latest in the succes sion. gave the impression that it was written especially to fill ...

... Despite its overall quality it didn't really achieve anything by John Lawrence Hoddinott Veiling, ATV, August 23 j J £r EACH of the scenes in Janet Burroway's play gave the impression that its purpose was to prepare both the characters and the audience for the events which were to follow. The trouble was, that no events ever did follow, and the play finished, leaving me with a feeling that ...

... Thirty-Minute Theatre: Seven Days in the Life of Andrew Pelham BBC 2, July 5 by John Lawrence ONE usually expects the first episode of a new series to be rather short on action, and rather long on explanatory dialogue while the scene is set, and the relevant characters introduced. However, in this, the first of seven stories by Innes Lloyd and Derek Hoddinott, precisely the reverse was the ...

... To appreciate Gangsters (BBC-1. Friday January 6. 9.25 pm), you will need tolerance, considerable stamina, an ability to solve puzzles and a taste for cult humour and in-jokes. There may be a place for a series that provides plenty of hokum and pokes fun at the wilder excesses of television detective drama but is this the way to do it? The plot if plot there was of Friday's episode ...

... Show of the Week: Keith Michell BBC-2, June 29 by James Towler IT WAS a good idea to get Keith Michell to host and star in a series recalling the music and drama from individual London theatres. Nostalgia is one of our few remaining growth industries and, while the material must vary from theatre to theatre, the very strength of continuity in the form of Mr Michell himself is an undoubted ...