... 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 ...

... Armchair Theatre: The Bargain Hunters Thames, August 10 by John Lawrence BILL MACILWRAITH'S play about a well-to-do couple who find what they think to be an Old Master in a friend's antique shop was a well-worked out comedy which was designed to show how people's stated morality differs from their actual code of conduct, es pecially when it comes to making easy money. The well-off couple, a ...