Popeye on the box

Did you see Miss Julie? If you didn't, you missed probably the best programme that has been made in New Zealand. The acting was impeccable- Pam Ferris as Miss Julie and Bill Stalker as the manservant Jean gave remarkable performances, Pam's being the more remarkable for her lack of television experience. The restricted cast was a great asset- with the standard NZBC 'with a cast of thousands' production, a bit player always seems to ruin any chance of a willing suspension of belief.

The acting was complemented by the direction, which was unobtrusive yet evocative of the mood suggested by Strinberg's original. Something else that was commendable the lighting. Most local productions are overlit, which emphasizes the artificiality of the set, and distracts from the actors- which is the main point of most productions. In fact, the only quibble is with the quality of the sound- the transfer from film sound to studio sound is marked by an incredible increase in the treble register, which is very annoying for most viewers.

The whole idea behind the production seems to be a valid one our present local playwrights aren't producing particularly inspiring scripts, so we use good overseas plays and adapt them to the peculiar demands of television. It gives everybody practice, and will enable us to handle competently the good script that will eventually issue from under the pen of one of our play wrights.

A programme that inspired me and my atheist friends was Sermon on the Mount in the God slot on Sundays, (it will have passed on by the time this has been printed) It consisted purely of an on-camera lecture by a Dr. Barclay, a Scottish theologian of the old school. Sounds dull? It wasn't- the lecture was delivered with an incredible ease, grace and wit- and you learnt quite a lot about the Bible at the same time. I hope that if it returns it should be made compulsory viewing for all our politicians and other public speakers.

Another bit of compulsory viewing should be proscribed for the producer of Search For Tomorrow, the local science programme. It's Tomorrow Today, a British programme, that from the beginning sets out to entertain as well as instruct- whereas the local product bores and certainly doesn't instruct. I hear that this is partially due to the NZBC policy of 'letting the experts speak for themselves' - and we all know how easy it is to understand the average New Zealand scientist, don't we? A change in format is called for, especially now that the programme is in a much earlier time slot.

Three guesses for the name of the airline that asked for the cancellation of The Doomsday Flight the movie about an aerial hijacking.