“Bumper” series down to Earth, practical

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32819, 20 January 1972, Page 4

“Bumper” series down to Earth, practical

The first of the new series of “Bumper to Bumper” was advertised as a practical look at motoring and vehicle safety. Well, it was certainly all of this and more on Tuesday evening, and scored full marks in my book for Tony Petre and producer Kim Gabara. The opening, with its simulated accident scene of two dead and two injured, was effective and realistic. It was good to see law enforcement agencies and ambulance authorities co-operating to this extent. With his quiet yet authoritative manner, Petre proceeded, as he said, to "go back in time,” and reconstruct what had happened. What appealed to me was the complete absence of phoney dramatisation or emotionalism —it was a reasoned, carefully thought-out approach entirely called for in the treatment of accident prevention. Film-making is a medium which, of course, has the flexibility which enables us to take a look at what happened in the minutes leading up to the accident, and this was particularly effective as the actions of those in each of the two cars and of the boy on his bicycle were examined. Having already seen the outcome of a too-relaxed approach with the passenger leaning heavily on the car door, and the child standing on the front seat without belt or. fastening, the spectacle of these things actually being done had double impact. Tony Petre’s words of wisdom, “Don’t be caught dead sitting on your seat belt,” somehow stuck. I liked, too, the constructive advice given, particularly that relating to what to do in the event of being present at an accident scene. For example, I had always imagined that injured people should be wrapped up and kept warm—apparently this is not so. Anyway, I sincerely hope that fewer people, as a result of this excellent programme and others like it, will be called on to recall Tony Petre’s further advice, "Keep them breathing and stop bleeding.” It is incidentally a cause for some parochial pride that the initiatives which led to the production of the programme “Bumper to Bumper” came from Christchurch, and have resulted in national screening. *

ing the annoyed and exasperated reactions of the two detectives.

It was, I suppose, necessary to the story, but I wondered how likely it was that our Red friend, always working by the rule book, would have .become scared to ask for assistance. But then nights alone in the dark make people face themselves as never before, and he was something of a bully. ♦ « ♦

The “World in Action” documentary “The Truants” which came at the end of the evening’s viewing took a candid look at three of the estimated 3000 children in Manchester who stay away from school every day for no good reason. It certainly did not take long for the home environment to show up as a major factor — in fact the parents interviewed seemed quite ready to accept as inevitable the fact that their children had missed the opportunities of education.

Particularly telling, I thought, were the pictures showing the girl caught up with the thrill of trying on new clothes, the two boys throwing stones on the railway track, and the longhaired boy firing a rifle at mice creeping out in the kitchen at night. I couldn’t help wondering what a similar documentary

CHTV3 2.00: Headline news. 2.03: Music, Music, Music. Variety. (Repeat) 2.55: Laurel and Hardy—“ Blockheads.” Comedy. 3.50: The Debbie Reynolds Show. Comedy. 4.14: Correspondence School.—Home training. 4.24: Animal World. Wildlife. 4.49: Doctor Doolittle. Cartoon. 5.12: Skippy. Adventure. 5.37: Headline news, weather. 5.40: The Flying Nun. Comedy. 6.10: The Andy Williams Show. Variety. 7.00: Network news. 7JO: Weather. The South Tonight. 7.35: Coronation Street. 8.05: The Outcasts. Western. 9.01: Newsbrief. 9.03: Steptoe and Son.—“ The Three Feathers.” Comedy. 9.33: The Gamblers.—“ You’ve Got a Lucky Face.” Play. 10.30: Late news and weather. 10.35: Cricket: Australia v. Rest of the World, 4th Test.

NATIONAL LINK {lncluding 3YA Christchurch (690 kilohertz); 2YA Wellington (570 kilohertz); 4YA Dunedin (750 kilohertz); and 3YZ Greymouth (920 kilohertz)]

7 p.m.: N.Z.B.C. Sports News. 7.20: Gardening Session. 7.30: Thirty Minute Theatre. Isn’t That a Girl’s Locket? A drajna by Pat Conrtell (8.8. C. 8.0: Prickly Thistle Club. 8.30: Weather and News. Checkpoint. 9.0: Brass in Concert. Manchester C.W.S. Band. Conductor, Alex Mortimer. Reissiger: Overture: The Mill on the i Cliff; Grieg: To the Spring; Mozart: Fantasia in F minor, Marquina: Spanish Gypsy Dance. 9.30: The Archers (8.8. C. 10.30: N.Z.B.C. News, Comment, Weather. 10.45: The Alan Dale Singers with Brian Fahey and his Orchestra. 11.0: 8.8. C. News and Commentary. 11.15: (continuous). 3YC, CHRISTCHURCH

(960 kilohertz) 7 p.m.: David Galbraith (piano). Falla: Pantomine; The Neighbour’s Dance; Andaluza; Granados: Coloquio en la reja (N.Z.8.C.). 7.29: Salzedo: Concerto for percussion (1969) — London Percussion Ensemble. 7.51:, Gerard Schurmann: Cycle from the Chinese: Chuench’l

undertaken in any big New Zealand city would show. s|s ♦ #

Janice Rule played a long, drawn-out episode in Bracken’s World of films as Vicki Nelson the star whose actor-husband dies during the shooting of a film. It was, I suppose, an interesting but unremarkable scheme by Bracken who saved both the star and the film. * * *

“The Morecambe and Wise Show” is billed as “comedy,” but it seems to me Eric and Ernie will have to work a lot harder than they did on Tuesday night’s show to fully qualify under this heading. * « *

It was interesting, in view of my speculation yesterday about “The South Tonight” to watch coverage of motor racing and safety. This was a good effort, with interviews very much to the point on an aspect of motor racing which is very much in people’s minds at present. But I wonder why “The South Tonight” team stopped where it did. Surely the piece would have been nicely rounded off by an interview with a couple of officials who are responsible for racing tracks in New Zealand and for crowd safety. — PANDORA’S GUEST.

—Marni Nixon (soprano), John McCabe (piano). 8.9: Ibert: Three Short Pieces— Haifa Wind Quintet. 8.16: Christ is Literally in NoMan’s Land: Letters from Wilfrid Owen to his mother, 1917-1918, read by Richard Johnson. 8.32: Alexander Scriabin. Introduced by Gerald Seaman. (3): Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 43 (The Divine Poem) (1905). 9.25: Wolf: I often ponder; All creation must perish; Oh, does my spirit feel—Norman Foster (bassbaritone), Heinrich Schmidt (piano). 9.36: Delius: String Quartet (Late Swallows) — Fidelio Quartet. 10.2: And the Fruits of the Earth Shall be Yours. 10.16: Dvorak: Symphony No. 8 in G — Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Hebert von Karajan. 3ZB, CHRISTCHURCH (1100 kilohertz) 7.2 p.m.: Hit Wavet 8.2: World Records on the Air. 8.30: Thursday Night with George Taylor. The FiftyOne Club. 10.30: Looking Back. 3ZM, CHRISTCHURCH (1400 kilohertz) 7.30 p.m.: Things are Swinging. 10.0: From the Top Pops.

"Softly, Softly” was quite up to standard with the entertaining episode entitled “Red Herring.” The portrayal of the “alleged anarchist guarding a secret manufacturing and research establishment” was well done. As much viewer satisfactton lay in this as In watch-