ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT Box Populi Wanted N.Z. Comedians

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30962, 19 January 1966, Page 9

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT Box Populi Wanted N.Z. Comedians

Life Is not a giggle to most New Zealanders. They seem to take their pleasures, and homegrown TV programmes, a trifle seriously. British and American comedies raise a laugh; the] N.Z.8.C., perhaps reflecting viewers’ tastes, has not shown us yet how to laugh at ourselves. We have had all kinds of programmes from the N.Z.B.C. but native comedy has been lacking. A few funny stories used to sneak in at the tail-end of the news, and there have been some childish, futile, and wasteful efforts to amuse us on New Year’s Eve. But our entertainment world has not produced a comedian who could be genuinely funny about our way of life, our politicians or our institutions. I believe the N.Z.B.C. has no basic objection to the introduction of New Zealand comedy on our TV screens. It can handle most subjects skilfully and competently; comedy presents certain problems which are difficult to overcome. The first is to find a comedian or a pair of comedians. Comedy is an art in which few New Zealanders seem to be proficient. The majority are self-conscious about facing an audience and making fools of themselves for public amusement The recipe for TV comedy does not begin and end with

the advice given by Mrs Beeton in her cookery book. After catching a comedian the N.Z.B.C. has to find comedy writers, and they are the rarest animals of all. There are none in this country like the gifted team of Alan Simpson and Ray Galton, who were responsible for all the laughter in “Steptoe and Son,” “Comedy Playhouse,” and “Hancock’s Half Hour.” A TV comedian, no matter how gifted, needs good material. Viewers will remember how disappointing Tony Hancock was when his script writers were changed in the last “Half Hour” series. When the N.Z.B.C. finds it hard to produce good scripts for many of its serious programmes there does not seem much hope of comedy writers appearing out of the blue. But I feel sure that somewhere there is at least one comedian here who is capable of carrying half an hour of comedy virtually alone like Roy Kinnear, Frankie Howerd or Sheila Hancock. The hour has been known to produce the man; the comedian might produce the comedy writers and the material. BASIC STYLES British TV comedy and its comedians are not universally popular with New Zealand viewers. Some prefer the more glamorous and sophisticated American programmes with their tailor-

made situations and dialogue, and don’t object to corn or sentimentality. They don’t like British humour when it is down to earth; to them it is just a peculiarly immature sort of sniggering humour of the cheapest type. But if and when the N.Z.B.C. decides to venture into the field of comedy it will have to look for comedians like Kinnear, Howerd, and Sheila Hancock. I don’t think viewers would be satisfied with a poor imitation of the American style of comedy. Roy Kinnear is not every viewer’s cup of tea. To begin with, he doesn’t look like a comedian. He seems too ordinary, a plumpish, worried man going slightly thin on top. And the day-dreaming “A World of His Own” is dismissed by some viewers as a pallid imitation of the glorious Walter Mitty comedy which Danny Kaye made his own. But day-dreaming is not the prerogative of Messrs Kaye and Kinnear. We all have our dreams, and while they might not be the same as those in which Roy Kinnear is the hero, his versions are always appealing. Some of them are not uproariously funny; the best of them are superb.

VERY FUNNY Frankie Howerd is another comic personality who does not appeal to everyone al-

though his programmes were written by Simpson and Galton. But he is a very funny funnyman who has obviously worked so hard that every line seems to come easily and naturally. He can take a TV audience into his confidence, and make them share in all his worries. There is nothing sniggering about his humour, and he can produce laughter from quite homely situations. He is the kind of comedian who improves on acquaintance, and I am sorry that the 8.8. C. produced only six programmes for him. Sheila Hancock is another comedian who has been hotly criticised by some viewers since she graduated from “The Rag Trade” to a show of her own, “The Bed-Sit Girl.” She is brassy, noisy, and, let it be whispered only, a trifle common. Her material is not as good' as Frankie Howerd’s —the series was written by Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney, authors of “The Rag Trade” and “Meet the Wife.” But like Kinnear and Howerd, she has the gift of carrying a show almost on her own. Like Lucille Ball, she does not seem to care what she does or how she looks, and there are times when she is gloriously funny. I look forward to the day when the N.Z.B.C. can find a female like her. —Argus.