They Say… December 1959

‘The tension was built up ingeniously with the suspense evenly distributed amongst the various subjects so that one remained entirely in the dark until the end.’

The Times on ‘Someone We Know’.

‘It is difficult after all these years of television plays to imagine anything more amateur than last night’s TV Playhouse production of “Someone We Know” … nothing rang true … It came as no surprise when Thomas Harris came out as the murderer.’

Daily Mail

‘Pleas send us two of your free photo bookie and address from your Company, because we wanted to join your Company. Try to write our names on your Company book.

‘We will send you monkey skin, parrot feathers and old stamps.’

Letter from two schoolboys in Ghana.

‘Whilst reading my paper this morning something set me thinking. It is the everlasting brickbats thrown at the programmes televised by commercial television. As a humble housewife may I give some praise for the many, many evenings of pleasure afforded to me on television. I am not a TV Zombie, because some shows I do dislike, but I realise that everyone has his own taste.

‘We have only had a television now for less than a year but I shall always be grateful for the many hours of pleasure it has given me, in an otherwise rather drab life.

‘Good luck to you and all who make it possible.’

Letter front an Eltham viewer.

GALA

‘As compilations of bits and pieces of culture go, this was a distinctly superior compilation.’

Philip Purser, News Chronicle.

‘As a job of offering culture to the mass audience without appearing to use force, Associated-Rediffusion’s Gala, a concert programme by leading international artists, deserves encouragement.’

Peter Black, Daily Mail.

‘My mind boggles at the thought of what ITV must have paid out to get together last night’s amazing array of international talent for Gala, the first programme in a new musical series … I had to settle for that discredited old adjective “fabulous”.’

Phil Diack, Daily Herald.

‘I am eighty years old and practically an invalid. I find the ITV programmes so varied. They certainly make my life (I live alone) 100 per cent more interesting.

‘I love the African series and the television games, “Green”, “Miles” and others, the plays and films. But please don’t have too much sport, education and such. The BBC have that in abundance and it makes me tired. Your programmes arc so right and friendly. I speak not only for myself, but many who visit me.’

Letter from Mr A. M. Wilce, Bridgwater, Somerset.

‘All the same, I believe the common man has a perfect right to enjoy himself in his own way. If superior persons dislike his tastes (and they do), then they must lump it.

‘More than that: they had better stop going on and on and on with their wailings against TV. For they have become a bore.

‘The fact is that most people, grown-ups and kids alike, watch the telly, on the whole, for fun.

‘They want to be entertained. It does not corrupt them, or debase them either. Nor do they take it as solemnly as the superior persons suppose.

‘For the common man with all his limitations, has a large supply of horse-sense. So has his wife. And they are perfectly capable of taking care of their own kids.’

Charles Curran, Empire News.