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? od Lata I earl corre Softly, ‘ Softly’ series had. GEORGE MELLY |: discusses TV law and order. it happens (a potent phrase from’ the TV critic’s article- shaping armoury, by the way) Mra Whitchouse’s council _recenily placed Dixon of Dock Green among the choices for its yearly accolade. "It follows that of al! the TV police series this has the Jeast to do ‘with reality and presents a rosy. paternal authoritarian day- dream in which even the * villains” tend ito shake the band which arrests them, while the law is miraculously free of ay human failings. Reassuring as this may be for those to whom " Jaw and order * are wordy to savour whatever the law atever cost the order, 1 thought thar rvimage presented by the Cars-(BBG-1) apd the done'more to make ‘the police acceptable, if not exactly lovable, to the average viewer. Admiuedly the same can hardly be claimed for The Informer (Rediffusion), “ where everyone is equally corrupt, but Barlow has become a sacred Monster, and every policeman on the beat is now the object of not entirely antagonistic speculation to us vicarious crime-fanciers. It was fascinating, therefore, to have the opportunity of measuring these fictional coppers against the real thing, and Don Haworth’s documentary, Police (BBC-1), layed comparatively fair in what it showed us, Possibly by taking one force, that of the West Riding, it concealed the fact that ethics and standards may vary a great deal throughout the country but, within its limitations, and while naturally friendly rather than hostile, it didn't try to hide the jess sympathetic aspects of what makes a man or woman decide to become a police- man - - - True, an older officer explained that he had signed on in 1937. when there were ‘nine jobs to 10 men’ and the salary—‘not the wage, mind you,’ he explained, ironically —seemed ‘a fortune.’ But his younger colleagues fell back on such statements if *You feel u if you're somebody * of * You really 4 feel important.’ The tendency to isolation from the public was made painfully clear and the slow eroding of pity brought home. ‘I used to cry in the pictures,’ said one youn: policewoman who recognised, re- luctantly, that she was becoming: harder, ‘ but that doesn't happea at, all now.’ While all regretted the aohing dislike of the police, most put it down to motoring offences ;. one man, with a sense of regional memory, to the 1926 strike, when : “people bad io be handled rather (oughly "3 + D0 one tried to impose | “Evening all’ myth. In par- ticular, the CID man explained that ‘a very narcow line divides a detec. tive from a thief’ and owned up to disappointment on a job ‘ where there's nothing been pinched,’ The geocral impression was then that the Jaw and their quarry have a special relationship which excludes the public, “You know Fred Wilson? 2 Well, if he's smoking pull him in. He always smokes like a chimney when he’s done ajob.’ Factor fiction ? Actually fact; the interlocking relationship the hierarchy, were a6 convir ever,» Z Cars “has gone soft, Despite a bravura performar Rachel Thomas as a fiercely Wolsh playground-minder, ' two-part wpisode did Tittle m fhint, at the series’ former Difficult to say what exactly wrong, but I suspect it has tc + an increasing bias towards { ‘dui, and thag this has destr moments of unexplained motivation which suggested characters had lives of tt which were interrupted, rat! brought into being, by the ¢ of the story-lines, Of the two Russian docur 1 personally found that th. The World Turned Upside D the edge on Granada’s Tr That Shook the World. B: grammes used many of U newsreel clips and, while + covered a litle more ground, subject matter was identical. that where Granada fell dow over-dramatising. There wa fusion between documentary and reconstructed reality w? the effect of diminishing bor the apocalyptic boom of Welles's commentary added t: it was a quote. from. the documen: _Pression of Fomanticised bo tary. But it's a proof of the apparent 7 au entity ‘of Softly, Softty’t that it might easily have been said by Watt or Barlow. As it happens, last weck’s episode was not one of the better ones; the central theme, Watt's kid- napping bya paranoiac Hungarian, seemed unlikely. But the tide issues, - The BEC played it cool. W" did reconstruct it was don open, and where they fell Eisenstein's film it was u that this was myth-making factual truth. Not that Gran. was bad—it was just that t was better. v is at te e uw of ke on we. the most fascinating point—where Custer the soldier tangles with the Washington politicians. Dead Heat om a Merry-Go-Round (Cactton—and heaven knows what the tide scans) is an extraordinarily complicated thriller about a charming con man (James Coburn) who cheats hi way out of prison and into a ‘bank robbery by seducing a succes- Gon of girls, one of whom (Camilia Spary) ho marries. This is one of those pictures which aro reasonably engrossing whilo one is watching them, but which immediately evapor- ate in one's memory. There is a very nice performance by Severn Darden as a crooked electronics wizard, and Coburn has seldom used hia natural attributes so effectively. But what it is all for, 1 have no idea. Lenin in is showing a: the Paris-Puilmad in a double-bill_with Heifitz’s briifant Lady with the Little Dog. It is a salutary programme for those who aro still amazed by the’ fact that the Russians can be tender, sensitive and often deeply sentimental. Coming after a ght of Revolution reminiscences, often drearily Topeti- tive aad erandiloquent, ‘Lenin’ did not sound promising. It is, however, & very jntimate litte film of Lenin's thoughts and memories while he was in me absurdly accused of 5 ving for the Tsar. We sce bim at with ‘Nadia, wife, and with othe Lan thats, trentad Like a Irene Worth as Mrs Hushabye la ‘Heartbreak House.’ between Peggy Ashcroft and Dorothy Tutin. Rather, the doubt has been about some of the directions her talent's taken. When all that larger- i power and intelligence go i she twines, she insinuates in innocent ears, smiling with a fatalistic, pitying tenderness which is never far from twisting into a jeer, Amusement flickers into pain, pain into amuse ment, until all sport seems cruelty and cruelty a sport ‘That's the keynote of the pay, and the sustains it the rest of the cast all evening, weaving around the action in which she's not herself involved, = gleaming net of watchful mirth and despair. It could be excessive. In fact, it's as perfectly calculated as the light, icasing stress with which she calls her philandering husband “Dear child.” = She has not taken over the play: she knows her place in its structure exactly. At the close, with the zeppelins thundering overhead, John Clements's Shotover stands dominating the ship- shaped stage Like a pilot at the wheel, She advances on to the stage’s apron, jutting into the orchestra, eyes up- ward, breast forward, a living com- posite of all the mermaids, witches and noble dames the clipper-builders chose for figurcheads, No one has expressed Shaw's image of the Etcrnal Feminine nore exactly The latest product of Caryl Jenner's tenancy af the Arts is a called The Laundry. This ponder: adaptation from the French is a translation of the minotaue myth to Anouilh territory, with a number of deprived Frenoh fadies in rusty black clerks and officials, reir what it was like in Petrogra: are a novelty and perhaps < more. It's tangible history even when they are talkin, aod have to be translated, fact the producer, Robert was able to record a surpri ber of people who spok. sometimes io splendidly t accents. But instead of pursui man in the flesh, John script consistently releg tecordings to second place. of slabs of text-book nar always seemed to be at 0 from the society that Fri Cradock had been look i third and last programme today, ' Fathers and Sons. More voices and everyd.: But so far there has b joke of a flash of col; journalism has been a favour of history in sma It’s all the more a pity | Programme budgets in Ra Sirctch to many trips 1o Ru where else. Radio is ci apologists are always sayii be saying louder than ev. next two years, while the experiment (which began Leicester four days ago) sc A local: station is supr able to manage on £50,0) the ‘trouble is. that 2 sui sounds acmepe, AoLbINg i