... Saturday Variety ATV, February 26 by James Towler EXPERIENCE has taught me that Saturday Variety comes over best when it lives up to its name. Nor was this the first time that it has abdicated its prime responsibility to present variety in order to take on the guise of a star ana a ratner scrappy one at that. It was a pity that Bob Monkhouse. probably the shar pest wit in the business, ...

... Pretenders HTV, February 27 by Patrick Campbell THE YEAR is 1685. The place, somewhere in the West Country. James Scott, Earl of Monmouth, bastard son of Charles II, has landed at Lyme Regis, raised a rabble army of Protestants and claimed the throne held by James II, newly converted to Catholicism. Caught between the Royalist troops under Colonel Kirke and the rebels is a troupe of ...

... 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 Certainly my initial complaint of a lack of variety is no longer valid.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 ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... Madly in Love Anglia, July 2 by Patrick Campbell WHAT is a poor girl to do when she finds herself suffering from a psychotic compulsion to obey every command given her, accompanied by an amnesia that wipes all memory of the obedience from her mind? What is a poor, romantic poet to do when he finds himself, at the age of twenty-eight, con genially unable to attract a mate and realises that he ...

... The Substitute Playhouse, Granada, June 27 by Graham Clarke IF there is one thing that can definitely be said in favour of this little play by Barrie Keeffe it is that it certainly knew its place. It would be hard to think of anything more unassuming. The author borrowed a familiar theme, that of a younger brother, neglected and uncon sidered in the glamour sur rounding an elder brother with ...

... Cranford BBC-l, December 3 by Patrick Campbell EXCEPT for a characteristic desire to pay respect to Elizabeth Gaskell (or, more likely, that her name is next on the perpetual rota of classic authors) I can see no good reason for a version of Cranford ai this time. I will admit Lord Houghton's dictum that Cranford is the finest piece of humouristic description that has been added to British ...