... Bolshoi in States BOTH the ballet and opera companies of the Bolshoi Theatre are touring ten cities of the United States this year, this being the first time the com panies have appeared simultan eously abroad. The season opens in New York on April 22 with a perfor mance of the ballet Spartacus, the repertoire also including Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle and Ivan the ...

... Telling story of adolescence and bigotry by JACKIE DYASON PETER McDOUGALL in his BBC-1 Play for Today. Just Another Saturday (Thursday. March 13. 9.25) used the framework of the annual Protestant Orange Day Parade in Glasgow to show us the conflicting emotions and attitudes of seventeen-year-old John, a Drum Major with one of the Lodge Bands. We were presented with some of his problems even ...

... Worst so far in G & S series BY JOSEPHINE HAWORTH The Gallon and Simpson Comedy. An Extra Bunch of Daffodils. London Weekend, May 24. NOT even Galton and Simpson can be relied upon to produce something superlative every time, as this mixed bag of half-hour comedies on Saturday evenings has shown. The latest offering, An Extra Bunch of Daffodils, was the worst so far in this series and ...

... Conversation piece BY ANN PURSER And Was Invited To Form a Government, BBC-2, May 22. CHARLOTTE and Denis Plimmer wrote a neat little thirty- minute play some time ago about an assassination plot, with an ingenious twist at the end that no one could have anticipated. Last week they had another political half-hour with And Was Invited to Form a Govern ment. Set in the future (but not too ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... Tense, dramatic start to Stendhal serial THE SCARLET AND THE BLACK BBC-2, Sunday, May 9 A TENSE and dramatic start heralded this new serial adapted from Stendhal's Le Rouge et le Noir by Michael Barry. A young man enters a church and shoots a woman almost on the altar steps. His life is told in flashbacks as the witnesses at his trial give their evidence. At first, when these flashbacks ...

... Strictly for the faithful viewer CROSSROADS ATV, Thursday, Mav 6 THIS series is strictly for the loyal and ever-faithful viewer. It lacks attraction for anyone who can watch it only occasionally. For instance, on Thursday afternoon I arrived smack in the middle of at least three puzzles so I watched the nexi instalment late tne same evening hoping for enlightenment. The chief of the ...