... Birds on the Wing: BBC-2 June 11 by Patrick Campbell NO comedy scrip for television is ever going to succeed unless the writer can couch dialogue and action in such a form that the particular actors who will interpret it are able to convey the author's exact intentions to the audience. Judged by this yardstick alone, Birds on the Wing is likely to be a resounding success. Peter Yeldham, who ...

... Armchair Theatre: Father's Help Thames, October 19 by John Lawrence FATHER'S HELP, written by, and also starring Michael Craig was a play about what happens when a father who is separated from his wife is lumbered with custody of his nine year old twin boys. The story was a straightforward one, and the play was peopled with ordinary, believable characters who behaved in a natural fashion, ...

... The Panel Granada, November 9 by John Lawrence ABOUT ten years ago, the cinemas were full of films about the north of England, and the people who live there. Nowadays, of course, one only finds them on television, and in many ways, Arthur Hopcraft's play looked as though it belonged to the era of Kind of Loving, Sat urday Night and Sunday Morn ing, and so on. There was, for example, the ...

... Cilia BBC-1, November 13 by James Towler SUCH is the combined strength of personality and television that Cilia Black can take over the BBC Television Theatre and do more or less as she pleases. The fact that she does it live provides an additional novelty to a presentation which, in less capable and appealing hands, would rank as a very hotch potch affair Indeed, this particular effort ...

... Tom Brown's Schooldays: Part 1 BBC-1 November 14 by Patrick Campbell THOMAS HUGHES was a militant christian and a radical reformer. I have no doubt that he made an excellent county court judge. But as an author he was a hit of a bore. Taking my memory back to my own youth, I found that I had a perfectly clear recollec tion of the opening sentence of Tom Brown's Schooldays. Now sir, time to get ...

... Thank You Very Much Play for Today: BBC-1, November 11 by John Phillips THE frenetic eccentricity of the mad, mad world of advertising is a tempting bait for the comedy writer. But there are pitfalls for the unwary. Not the least of these is the abundance of suitable send-up material inherent in the subject which can easily diffuse the aim of the satirical shafts and blunt their impact. Mr ...

... Persuasion: Part One Granada April 18 by Patrick Campbell TO step into a field hitherto leased almost exclusively to the BBC-- the adaptation of the classic novel--demands just the sort of brash self-confidence that Granada personifies. By and large, Howard Baker s production of Persuasion, Jane Austen's last and perhaps most endearing book, manages to avoid the cow pats, thistles and other ...

... The Guardians: Appearances London Weekend, August 14 by Donald Sartain IT WAS depressing to watch good actors wasted in such a boring exercise in scatty totalitarianism as last week's Appearances, in The Guardians series. The recipe was simpiy take the obvious trends of today and exaggerate them: anti-communism, anti-pollu tion, anti-noise, violence lead ing probably to greater state control ...

... Albert and Victoria: The Last Word Yorkshire, August 14 by Donald Sartain WHEN SO many stories in the theatre, films and television have reflected the more sinister aspects of Victorian patriarchal society, it is refreshing and ethically and historically important, especially in entertainment that television, the most modern of the three media, should take a new look at the household ...

... The Chaps Granada, August 15 by John Lawrence OVER the last few years, with programmes like Z Cars and Softly Softly, we have become quite used to seeing professional criminals on television being treated like ordinary human beings, with the same kind of problems as everyone else. So from this point of view, Tony Hoare's play, well-written though it was, held few sur prises. Certainly the ...

... Out of the Unknown: The Chopper BBC-2. June 16 by John Lawrence GHOST stories on television, and in the cinema come to that, can usually make use of most of the technical facilities which the camera has to offer in order to achieve the impression of the supernatural. They also frequently have recourse to sucn devices asi me napping curtain, moving furniture, creaking door, and so on. In ...

... The Passenger BBC-1, October 23 by Patrick Campbell THERE is a small hotel about half way between Leeds and Harrogate where they make perfect Yorkshire pudding. However many times you may call, the standard never varies. The secret? The landlady uses precisely the same ingredients in exactly the same quantities and mixes them with a skill acquired over many, many years. The same is true of ...