... As flat as a duff Yorkshire pudding BBC-1 Hudson and Halls IF PETER Hudson, former shipping company director from Australia, and David Halls, one-time shoe shop manager from Essex, have been named as entertainers of the year in New Zealand, then it tells you a lot about the paucity of showing among the Kiwis. The pair of them are currently mak ing their TV debut here in a joint BBC North West ...

... Worzel Gummidge Down Under CHANNEL-4 WORZEL GUMMIDGE, the straw-haired, gap-toothed, dirty, straggly, slobbering haystack of a scarecrow has travelled just about as far as it's possible to go in order to keep the series alive. Lovable and bad-tempered Worzel, played by Jon Pertwee, has gone Down Under to Zoo Nealand. with abso lute certainty it is the age of the viewer that will consider ...

... Brush Strokes BBC-1 IT IS hardly the revelation of the week but we are blessed with an abundance of good actors, and one of them is the under-praised Karl Howman. To cast him as Jacko, the streetwise Jack-the-lad, the chap that the ladies love to love despite their own warning bells, was a masterstroke. Howman, as Jacko, comes off the screen and lives. He is a strong and credible character. ...

... The Secret Video Show SKY ONE SKY Television made a wide decision when they hired a presenter of Chris Tarrant's calibre to host The Secret Video Show, their new Sunday evening series sponsored by JVC. Showing amateur home video clips made by viewers has proved popular on American television this year. Either their viewers are very easily pleased or ours are sending in less entertaining stuff. ...

... Vic Reeves Big Night Out CHANEL 4 THE LATE Tommy Cooper would have loved this man and his madcap show. It brings to mind the pointless lunacy of Hellzapoppin and has every prospect of gaining a cult following. Vic Reeves runs the nuttiness like a benevolent dictator on speed or the inmate who has taken over the asylum. Whether or not he is funny or pathetic depends upon individual reaction, ...

... Steve's Family values STEVE JOHNSON (right) has joined cable and satellite broadcaster The Family Channel as presenter of its T-Time slot seven days a week between 5 and 6pm. Johnson was most recently seen in the children's ITV series Terror Towers and admits that his new job is a change from his usual television work. He explained: In Terror Towers I give kids some horrible tasks and on ...

... Metcalfe given the job of a Lifetime ADRIAN METCALFE, former director of programmes at Newcastle-based ITV contractor Tyne Tees Television, has been appointed managing director of independent production company Metcalfe will take charge of Lifetime Broadcast's current programming slate, which includes BBC2's Far Flung Floyd and children's ITV' series Go Wild! (for Central) and Runaway Bay ...

... Zographos' head for business STRATIS ZOGRAPHOS has been appointed commercial director of the newly-established ITV Network Centre. Working directly to its chief executive Andrew Quinn, he will be responsible for ITV's programme finance and bud get, business affairs and ITV Association finance and administration. Zographos established his reputation in the broadcasting industry as finance and ...

... In search of the F-factor By MOIRA PETTY THIS month marked the beginning of a brave new era in television, which turned out to be neither brave nor particularly new. It was also the beginning of the end for Inspector Morse and the much-elevated Metropolitan Police Commander Adam Dalgliesh, a pair who eschewed glamour, but had it perversely thrust upon them. With George Baker's Wexford also ...

... CALL FOR CHARTER TRUTH By ANGUS TOWLER BBC STAFF unions are to call on the Corporation to confirm the accuracy of leaked documents putting forward a series of radical changes for its operations, which, if implemeted, would almost certainly lead to more redundancies. The proposals, which come from reports drawn up internally by 1 5 task forces set up to determine how the BBC should be run in ...

... 'Open up your casting books' UNEMPLOYED actress Paula Woods this week called on others in the same position to join forces in an attempt to persuade television companies to provide casting information for free. Woods claimed that most actors were not being given a fair chance to find work because programme makers preferred to give informa tion only to established casting updates such as Script ...

... If you don't know me by now PEOPLE say they haven't found it yet. They say they don't know where to find it and if they do, they don't know what it is. Sounds like a riddle? No, just Radio 5. More than five million have found it, do know precisely where it is and what they want to listen to on the BBC's 'new' net work. Actually Radio 5 has been on air more than a year, but it's only now ...