TV Once again television has TV Once again television has served the nation in gathering many millions around the Queen and the Duke as they set off at night from London Airport for a sixmonth journey of understanding and benevolence around the world.
On such an occasion, informal in itself. we are particularly moved by the blending of the public office with the personal family affection -shown in the partings. Exalted as is the royal position, it links itself with the humblest in the land in the things that matter deepest to the human heart.
It was not an occasion very suitable to the technique of outside televising, and even mistakes of timing seem to have been made. But a good effort was made to fill the gaps with demonstrations of what would be going on inside the Canopus, and for many viewers this would be a thrill in itself. Kenneth Kent's three-times televised thriller "The Shop at Sly Corner" is an example of the kind of play calculated to give genuine enter tainment to every type of viewer. It is a play much favoured by amateurs, and I myself saw it performed by the boys at Beaumont some years ago. I mention these things because I cannot understand the constant complaint that there are not enough plays to go round. The television which repeats the same play within the same week surely cannot fear repetition of really good plays at yearly or twoyearly intervals. Memories are short, and there is a special pleasure in seeing again a play of which one only remembers the general pattern.
Apart from this, I have seen many a play at the smaller and try-out London theatres which have never even achieved the West End. Many of them were excellent, and often in their intimacy especially suited for television adaptation. Older plays can be rewritten for modem audiences.
Then there is the possibility of translating plays from abroad. The supply is surely inexhaustible, even if there arc ton few new good plays available.
M. B.