Inane quiz

POOR interviewing marred the BBC's up-and-coming "Wednesday Magazine", last week, when David Jacobs asked inane questions of that highly intelligent actress, Diane Cllento. ("What does it feel like to be called a modem Helen of Troy?") John Wain, however, did much to rescue the programme with his questions and excusable hostility Inwards the vain young author, Robin Cook. In "Perspective", the BBC's other afternoon programme that goes from strength to strength, the interviewers on "Memory" (Thursday) were Elaine Grand, Hugh David and Kenneth Kendall, and their fault was to hammer on too long at one given angle. The people interviewed were, for the purpose of the programme, necessarily one-dimensional, invited because they had phenomenal memories, had taken a memory course, and so on. The audience was right behind each investigation, but had caught up and passed the interview before the topic was switched. This criticism applies also to the best episode, that of the barrister who demonstrated with the identification parade, how unreliable memory is.