Box Populi Almost Bad As Real Thing

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30956, 12 January 1966, Page 8

Box Populi Almost Bad As Real Thing

Summer holiday camps are an American institution. Plays and short stories have been written about them, they are recognised breeding grounds for romance, and the juvenile versions are accepted as the right places for little horrors

in the holiday season. So far New Zealanders have been fortunate. They have not been exposed to the organised cheerfulness of American summer camps or the dreadfur heartiness of their British equivalent, the holiday camps of Sir Billy Butlin. Now, however, the N.Z.B.C. has inflicted on viewers an American comedy series about summer camps called “Camp Runamuck.” The first episode suggests that a summer camp on the TV screen is almost as bad as the real thing.

Four Operas

The Sadler’s Wells Trust has commissioned four new operas with the assistance of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Sadler’s Wells is following up the success of its commission of Richard Rodney Bennett’s “The Mines of Sulphur” by encouraging Bennett further and by commissioning new operas by from Malcolm Williamson, Nicholas Maw and Gordon Crosse.

PRODUCING OPERA

Sir Michael Redgrave will produce Massenet’s “Wer ther” at this year’s Glyndebourne season. He worked for Glyndebourne in 1940 when he sang Macheath in “The Beggar’s Opera.” AMERICAN TOUR The English tenor Richard Lewis will sing in eight performances of Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde” in his four-month American concert tour, five with Ormandy and the Philadephia, and three with Krips and the San Francisco Symphony.

“Camp Runamuck” has been introduced during the holiday season, and it might amuse holiday-makers who are able to watch TV in a more relaxed frame of mind than usual. But what will they do when they return from their holidays to find this socalled comedy series has enough episodes to last until the winter? How Will they face up to the dismal prospect of many weeks of synthetic laughter, old corny gags, and comedy which is just not funny.

SITUATION GAGS Typical summer camp situations are used in “Camp Runamuck” to provoke laughter. The gags are visual, broad, and ridiculous, and there should be some humorous situations in the presence of a boys’ summer camp just across the lake from a girls’ camp.

The first episode with its irritating piped in laughter to ensure that viewers see the joke, and its too obvious humour, succeeded only in being provoking. As a comedy for adult viewers “Camp Runamuck” has been pitched at far too low a level; even children might be inclined to sneer instead of laugh at it. There is a lot of comic talent in this programme—it was a delightful surprise to find Hermione Baddeley as the leader of the girls’ camp —but most of it is being wasted. David Ketchum, for instance, deserves something better than the role of the senior counsellor at Camp Runamuck, who calls his staff “men,” and his campers “the troops.” Miss Baddeley may surprise us in future episodes; her presence is the only justification for watching any of them.

SIX STORIES After the inanities of “Camp Runamuck” it was a relief to return to a modest but intelligent programme like “Dr. Thorndyke.” This 8.8. C.

series of independent stories linked by a different kind of detective —a doctor and barrister who is an expert in forensic medicine—is all too short. Six stories are only enough to whet, the appetite. I would like to see more of the detective created many years ago by the novelist, R. Austin Freeman. Dr. Thorndyke is not one of the great detectives of fiction. He is of lesser stature than Holmes, Maigret or Poirot, and by today’s standards he may seem slightly old-fashioned. But his methods are as effective as those of the giants in his field. Wisely, the 8.8. C. has not attempted to modernise the stories. They are set in the early 1900 s, and each episode is presented as a period piece. Even the titles such as “Percival Bland’s Proxy” and “Phyllis Annesley’s Peril” seem to preserve the atmosphere of arsenic and old lace. R. Austin Freeman wrote more than half a dozen stories about Dr. Thorndyke, and I am sorry the 8.8. C. has

not chosen to extend the series. Peter Copley, who plays the doctor-barrister most competently and intelligently, deserves the chance to impress his personality on viewers—something which is not possible in only six episodes. Given the opportunity, he could make Dr. Thorndyke as popular in the world of TV detection as Maigret. FOR THE HUNGRY When the N.Z.B.C. announced a series of programmes on keeping summer cooking really cool I thought that “Here’s How” might be a challenge to the supremacy of Graham Kerr in the field of gastronomy. Alison Holst is not a rival to Mr Kerr as a cook or an entertainer. She offers no fireworks or excitement; she is concerned with cooking for hungry families, and her demonstrations are pleasing to watch. She has a pleasant personality, her explanations are easy to follow, and she is most efficient.