ITV's 60th Birthday

Here is the News was superb - and although it didn't feature Julie Etchingham heavily I loved her recollection of her first News at Ten and her awe at presenting alongside Trevor.

Maybe not on ratings for ITV (which of course was London only anyway).... but which one were all the papers and the public talking about the next day?

DEATH OF BBC SERIAL CHARACTER

Grace Archer, one of the main characters in the BBC's serial The Archers, "died " in last night's instalment while an ambulance was taking her to hospital. She had been trapped in a blazing stable. A spokesman for the BBC said last night: "We had considerable reaction to the death of Grace Archer. Some people rang up to make sure that it was the character in the serial who had died and not the actress. Most of the people who rang up said it was a pity she had died."

FIRST NIGHT OF THE I.T.A. - EMPHASIS ON THE "STARS"

What will it be like? Last night's opening programme of independent television did not really go very far towards an answer to this question. From the opening ceremony in Guildhall to the religious epilogue just after 11 p.m. it was plain that this was to be one of those evenings of trial and excitement with everyone on their best behaviour and below their usual form.

It was not long, of course, before the first advertisement spots began to appear. The Postmaster-General had assured us early on that these "would be confined to natural breaks in the programmes " and at least they did not interrupt his own speech. They broke through first during the rapid variety show from the Associated Broadcasting Company's Television Theatre in that curiously nasal, synthetic tone that advertising has in the cinema.

A pretty girl began to clean her teeth before us with Gibb's S.R. toothpaste; then in the manner of a panel game two people at a table were asked what their favourite brand of drinking chocolate was, and they replied Cadbury's; a packet of margarine followed, and so on, punctuating the different items during the rest of the evening. None appeared as particularly clever or memorable, though Dunlop managed a good shot of some early tires, National Benzole some agreeable views of Devon, and Oxo introduced Mr. Harry Corbett's dog Sooty to drop its cubes into a mug of hot water.

Offensive would be too strong a word by far for these comic little interruptions of the entertainment, but one did feel nonetheless that a thick skin of resistance to them would be needed before long.

The long selection of programmes were relayed well - the actual technique of presentation being not perceptibly different from that to which we are already accustomed, except perhaps in the case of the I.T.A. newsreel, which is introduced by Mr. Chris Chataway and hopes to spice its news items with the "reporting of idiosyncrasies" as Mr. Aidan Crawley put it.

There was no apparent hitch during the evening and the programmes (some of them on film) were all admirably to time.

The general aim was to play briefly a few trump cards and to hint at more in hand to be played soon. On the dramatic side these included Sir John Gielgud and Dame Edith Evans, Mr. Alec Guinness and Miss Pamela Brown, Mr. John Clements and Miss Kay Hammond. The brief excerpts they performed from Wilde, "Saki," and Mr. Noel Coward were almost a history in miniature of the comedy of manners and were all splendidly done.

Even though one is familiar with the sound of Sir John and Dame Edith in the great "handbag" scene television adds to this the sight of Sir John's hands nervously explaining in close-up that the bag had handles on it. If subsequent productions are at all as good as these samples theatre-loving viewers will not complain.

The variety performances from the television theatre did not, unfortunately, raise quite such high hopes. On television Palladium girls look somehow just like any other row of chorus girls. The buffoonery in which Mr. Billy Cotton and his band specializes gains, it could perhaps be argued, from being seen as well as heard; and it was certainly pleasant to become reacquainted with Miss Shirley Abicair and Mr. Leslie Welch, but on the whole what was shown here did not suggest that the new light entertainment programmes will bring revolution in their wake.

However, later in the evening the gala night at the Mayfair Hotel introduced in its cabaret Mr. George Formby singing some of his familiar songs with a devil-may-care ease and radiant bonhomie that certainly brightened the picture, as also did a newcomer from America, Miss Marti Stevens, a songster of uncommon charm, who is to appear regularly throughout the winter.

Unfortunately the interviews with Miss Anna Neagle and Mr. Stirling Moss, staged before this only served to remind us of that stilted and artificial manner of introducing a famous person to the cameras which one thought television had by now outgrown.

Much more relaxed was the professional boxing presented by Mr. Jack Solomons from the Shoreditch Town Hall, which had in the event the longest and most normal kind of showing. Mr. Terence Murphy and Mr. Lew Lazar, the fighters, were kept well before us in an excellent picture quite up to the high level set for relays of boxing on television.

All in all, the new television service has passed its first evening's test with a good measure of professional accomplishment. But what its actual quality is likely to be over the coming months of rivalry is still very much anyone's guess.

"dog Sooty"? Isn't he a bear? His sidekick Sweep is the dog.