From the New Zealand TV Weekly. February 20, 1967

Auckland

A pleasure to have Nyree Dawn Porter relieving Sherlock Holmes' arrogance and Dr Watson's stuffiness in The Abbey Grange. Nyree takes top marks as the most efficient screamer in the business.... Rumour that Bryan Ashbrigdge hopes to produce a feature about the February North Shore Festival of Arts and Crafts... Like greeting an old, friend when Michael Forrest, formerly of Z Cars, turned up as the village bigmouth in the Alun Owen play, The Stag.... New Zealand baritone Donald McIntyre's powerful, dramatic voice distinguished the chilling Menotti opera, Martin's Lie, movingly produced in Bristol cathedral as part of the Bath Festival... While Eugene Fraser ranks as prebably AKTVZ's most popular news reader, purists complain of his frequent stumblings...... That old rogue, Wilfred Bnambell, will probably never escape crafty parts after his success in Steptoe and Son. He did a first-class job as a sly old seaman in the Comedy Playhouse adaptation of the W. W. Jacobs story, Sam the Samaritan ..... Refreshing to see readers Max Smith and Peter Empen getting away from news to interviewing. Their relaxed, conversational competence poses many lessons for younger interviewers with their deadly, unrelated textbook question's, flat voices and unsmiling lack of ease.

Wellington

A pat on the back for the NZBC news section for its handling of the Premier Ky visit to the capital. A comprehensive coverage, well-balanced between Marshall Ky's activities and the screams and jeers of the demonstrators. If the anti-Ky people were dissatisfied with the coverage from Christchurch, they can hardly complain that they weren't given full exposure in Wellington. Although some may be feeling somewhat ashamed about their outlandish and incoherent behaviour..... But while the news staff may be happy with their coverage of the Ky visit, there are mutterings in the news room about the handling of the full-scale interview with Premier Ky on his arrival in Christchurch. The NZBC'S top political man David Inglis was recalled from vacation to handle the interview with Paul Cheesewright of the Public Affairs section. A strange division of duties and one that seems to suggest a clash between sections within the Corporation. Newsmen are sour about the whole deal, claiming that Inglis should have been joined by one or other of their men who have recently visited Vietnam-Lindsay Shelton or Peter Fabian. Cheesewright did not appear familiar enough with the topic to adequately back up the probings by Inglis. The result: A flop where there could have been a triumph.

CHRISTCHURCH

TV watching tops the list of activities which people of the Christchurch suburb of St Albans say take up most of their leisure, according to a survey carried out by Canterbury University's Sociology Department. Of 328 householders interviewed, 19 per cent said that TV took up most of their spare time, one per cent less said they spent most of their leisure gardening, while 13 per cent admitted that newspaper reading took up most of their time. Other information from the survey: About 3.5 per cent of those interviewed said they viewed for more than 35 hours a week; 27 per cent viewed for more than 20 hours and 19 per cent between 10 and 19 hours. Widows appear to be St Albans' most devoted TV fans ..... Produced by Stanley Hosgood, and fronted by sportsmen Keith McEwen and Ron Findlay, the Grandstand special previewing the international Lady Wigram Trophy race was voted one of the best programmes they had seen anywhere in the world by visiting racing drivers and London Sun motoring correspondent, Barrie Gill, who, when at home does a weekly half-hour motoring programme for BBC-2. Hosgood focused his cameras on personalities rather than cars; had No 1 BRM team driver Jackie Stewart do a lap of the track with the aid of a well produced diagram; brought in former world champion Jim Clark to give his ideas about race prospects and called on Gill to sum up. Interesting feature was interviewees were allowed to talk freely about relative merits of the different tyres being used by name.

DUNEDIN

Wet day, no play was the fate of not only this correspondent and many other Western Otago holidaymakers, but also of what might have been a most productive expedition by DNTV2's operations supervisor Ted Kelly and cameraman Noel Leo. The two journeyed round to Doubtful Sound and Deep Cove on the Hororata hoping for some interesting material. The material was there all right, but the contrary (to put it mildly) weather made effective filming and keeping to schedule impossible. Ted hopes they managed to get a modicum of worthwhile film, but is frustrated by the memory of the interesting sights encountered but which had to go unrecorded - this time, anyway ..... Dunedin's Festival Queen, Adele Horsburgh, turned out to be a real natural for television. She was delightfully photogenic, had a decidedly pleasant speaking voice and was completely poised and articulate before the cameras. Too bad she's getting married and moving to Balclutha ..... How's that again? My holiday stand-in for Channel Check inadvertently introduced a nonexistent personality into DNTV2's new Town and Around Team last week. I'm sure DNTV2 must have been puzzling over its new personality, Howell Watson, and Hal Weston must have been feeling quite left out of it all. Blame crackly telephonic communication. And please Hal, accept belated apologies - also Catherine Dowling who, of course spells her name with a "C" not a "K." Noel Robeson, indicated last week as the 1967 host for the local Town and Around will alsoparticipate in the vignettes which will go to make up the show. Producer Rod Cornelius has decided to use all NZBC staff on the show rather than contractees mainly because, besides being experienced, he feels they'll be readily available and less likely to have prior commitments when an emergency story is breaking.

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