‘Wallenberg’ lacked an essential ‘something’

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 19

‘Wallenberg’ lacked an essential ‘something’

“Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story’ packed about as much wallop as the recent Benson and Hedges World Series Cricket contest, in which the only thing of real interest was Australia’s Greg Matthews, the man who leaves his teeth in the locker room.

But enough of lipless heroes, wasted summer evenings and uncut back lawns knee-high to a giraffe. Back to “Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story” and Richard Chamberlain’s ageless good looks, generous lips and own set of Tim Shadbolt’s.

It was about Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who managed to save tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazis by supplying them with fake Swedish passports.

The sets and costumes were superb, but nothing much else was. It lacked that essential something. It lacked texture, depth and dimension. It was a series in which nothing much seemed to happen except the handing out of fake passports.

As Wallenberg, Chamberlain did a mighty job of this. He heroically strode around in a mock vinyl coat handing them out like they were junkmail, his mock-vinyl face

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expressing the pained look of man in desperate need of the nearest toilet. Fixed, pained looks were what this series was all about As Baroness Elizabeth Kemeny, Alice Krige did things with her face that could only have been attained by sinking her teeth into a fresh lemon or being prodded in the posterior with an unspeakably sharp pointed object — a needle three metres long. The faces she pulled were something to behold — talk about stiumlusresponse acting.

As with most miniseries about the Holocaust, “Wallenberg’: A Hero’s Story” was about pain, suffering, terror and horror. It was about resistance, annihilation and survival. Some series have portrayed the murder and the mayhem better than others. “Holocaust” was probably the best of them.

However, what they all have in common is the event. What none of them explain or explore is the

Holocaust’s reasons, the shaping, determining forces which led to it. What none of them look at is why the Jews have been hounded from one end of time to another, why their “chosen people” status has been exceeded only the number of times mankind (and I am being gender specific here) has tried to wipe them from the face of the earth.

Back to teeth, of which Princess Anne on “Wogan” had several, if not hundreds ,of thousands. No matter what the make-up department did they just could not hide

the fact that she has more teeth than Richard Chamberlain, Jimmy Carter and the Osmond family put together.

But what a set of charming and appealing teeth they are. The nice thing about her is that no matter how hard the make-up people and public relations consultants try, they cannot stop her from flashing her ivories. Soon as look at you she’ll give you an eyeful. Not only does this girl have teeth, which Greg Matthews can only dream of, but she has brains and wit as well. Responding to Wogan’s question about whether she regreted not having partaken in the gay and frivolous university student reviews of which her brothers hadindulged themselves, she said: “I did all that when I was in the Girl Guides.” The cutting patronisation of men never sounded so innocent.

Clearly, Wogan was in love with her, his Irish eyes smiling and blowing her kisses. Most of the media is besotted with her. After years of bad press, she is now their darling. What Wogan’s interview latently revealed, though, was that Anne is the media’s darling on her terms only and no one elses, which, of course, is why she is so appealing.