The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 29

Pmge Tiro ROBERT PEACH OF A.M. THE ROAD BACK Four months ago, Robert Peach opened ABC radio's current affairs programme A.M. with his customary brisk "Good morning, this is Robert Peach with A.M. for Monday, May 18." These words marked his return to the programme after seven months' absence. For Robert Peach they also marked victory over a tremendous personal setback.

AUSTRALIAN satirical comedy made a welcome return to television in the series Australia A to 2 ABV-2, Tuesdays). And if the first episode (S any indication, it could be better than The Greater Illustrated History of the Glorious Antipodes Show that sired it. While patrons of live revue may have recognised some of the sketches, most viewers of this latest ABC forage after indigenous funny-bones would have found it a quick-moving and delightful half hour's viewing. There were undertones of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, a ghostly glimpse of Marty Feldman and, looming larger than life in the opening, was Lord Rustless himself in the person of Noel Ferrier, as the anchorman. Ferrier, incidentally, is making an affectionate return to the medium that to date has not understood his talent.

Here, I think, is the sort of television that suits him best no nervous giggles to fill in for the sponsor, but the comedian who is also on actor, happily playing out a fully rehearsed role. The mixture of the absurd and the subtle was so cleverly, intermixed in the material that it was easy to forgive (and laugh) when Mr. Ferrier introduced us lo "something close to my heart" a framed picture of his liver! The gem of the night, as it happened, was Ferrier-less. It was a send-up of Australian heroism in the field as Americans would have depicted it in one of their super colossal film sagas complete with "Aznocs" and throbbing Waltzing Matilda amid the gunfire. Australia A to should be easy to export and for one I would like to see the ABC make a profit out of this one if for no other reason than to show the commercial stations what they, too, should be attempting.

THE RAQUEL WELCH special (ATV-0, Sunday) made one point. Beauty is skin deep. Neither the I Jl men. He gets up each week day at 3.45 a.m., drives himself (in an automatic car) to work by 4.45, works flat out with the rest of the A.M. team to put the programme together and is up front at 8 a.m.

when it goes to air (in Melbourne through AR, Monday to Friday). He admits that he still tires easily, and is in bed early every night. "Friday night is my big night," he says. "I stay up late and have a ball." The television current affairs programme This Day Tonight (which is compered by his cousin Bill Peach) is "my late late show" and it goes to air at 7.30 p.m. During Robert Peach's months in hospital, a benefit night was held for him at a Sydney He was very moved by the response.

"It wasn't only ABC people: the place was packed with people, representatives of the whole industry--every-one, from TV and radio technicians that I'd worked with, to actors." Robert Peach was the original compere of A.M. when the programme began in 1967. He produced it when it was compered by Brian Wright and Tony Lee, and returned as com pere shortly before his accident. Glenn Menzies stood in for him during his recovery. Peach is also well-known to listeners as a writer and reader for Poet's Tongue and Quality Street While in hospital, he wrote and produced the feature An Actor's Life: Ron Had-drick, heard on ABC radio earlier this year.

It was a remarkable effort "it took me five months to edit it he says. FAMILIAR VOICE To Victorians, Melbourne-born Robert Peach remains one of that band of radio actors (John Morgan, Syd Conabere, Keith Eden, Patricia Kennedy, whose voices were daily companions in the palmy days of radio dramas and serials, immediately post-war. One might think that the early morning A.M. routine, with stories constantly flooding in from the team overseas and interstate, and the relentless pressure of getting the programme ready to go to air, would hardly be conducive to recuperation. But Robert Peach seems to thrive on it.

In search of revolution in hijack-proof TV land In October last year, the compere was badly injured when he was knocked down by a car in Sydney. His left shoulder was shattered, both legs were broken one so badly that it was in plaster for six months and he suffered extensive bruising. Robert Peach a prolific writer (of radio features and episodes of TV series. Delta and Contrabandits), sometime actor and advertising executive, producer, sportsman and father of four children found himself totally immobilised, unable to type or even operate a tape recorder, and under threat of partial paralysis. RE-LEARNT TYPING He trained himself to type again with his arm in a special leather strap, managing at first only a word or two a day.

After four months he could just type a line. He left hospital with his leg in a caliper. He now walks with a stick, and undergoes physiotherapy three times a week. Nevertheless, he copes with a daily routine which would do credit to many fitter Isn't tlia't what you want? Hish singing nor the dancing; neither the talking nor the walking, convinced me that Miss Welch is anything other than a sex symbol. The programme begged the question.

Hence the verdict. Best sketch was the Mae West impersonation, credits being 90 per cent, to make-up and wardrobe and 1 0 per cent, to the star. The remainder of the show was Raquel lensed from all angles alone and in company, but always the camera's focal point. The programme included some well-researched locations picked with color television in mind. BACK in the 40s, Hollywood made a big thing of low-budget musicals in which big bands played and starlets hoofed their way across college campuses or Vermont snowfields.

Those starlets (June Pressier Jean Rogers?) invariably wore beanies and were mini-skirted some two decades, before the fashion gained international recognition. Their sweaters were v-e-r-y tight. The Ray Anthony Show (ATV-0, Sundays) revives powerful memories of those movies. Has the series been locked oway in the Time Machine? Opinions vary, but I believe it to have been filmed in Miami's Hilton Plaza Hotel within living memory. fabulous idea, perhaps, but it wasn't that.

Neither were the insurrectionists (there have to be insurrectionists actors because Homicide was on "free" re-run. No. they certainly were not in charge Revolution, an unstable word, seemed to apply, nebulously, to the promise by the channel to put an end to "mundane and monotonous programming." Though the viewer may be forgiven for not understanding what all the excitement was about he nevertheless felt intrigued enough to take notice. The channel copied ABV-2 by putting on British comedy series and the inveterate commercial TV viewer dis-: covered a new taste. True, the channel produced some better than average films.

Not exactly revolutionary, or was it? The emphasis was placed on specials instead of series. wifflHl AGFA-GEVAERT TAPE fidelity sound without tape Then listen lo this. If you play any ordinary standard- tape brand-new, straight from the box you will hear it sizzle. With the new Agfa Hifi Low-Noise tape, you won't! But then Agfa Hifi Low-Noise is no ordinary tape. Test it on your player, and hear for yourself.

From your tape dealer or photographic store. AGFA HIFI LOW-NOISE I wonder if the viewer with eyes and ears only for the programmes would have been much aware of the Channel Seven Revolution, but for the interruptive announcements and newspaper campaign? Talk of revolution (in the TV sense) and four out of five people will answer It broke out a year ago and this week celebrates its first anniversary with 185 hours of continuous programming. The bald statement at first conjured up all sorts of things. In those days the slogan was "Channel Seven is revolting." Channel Nine smiled and agreed. Had those hamstrung pro- -ducers, survivors of earlier HSV-7 purges, put the management under A The first of three recordings from the Menuhin Festival Orchestra's recent Australian tour will be heard on ABC radio this week.

Yehudi Menuhin is both soloist and conductor in Mozart's Violin Concerto in K. 216, from AR at 8 p.m. on Saturday, October 3. On the same programme is Schubert's youthful Symphony No. 5 in Flat.

The Menuhin Festival Orchestra is one of the important groups founded in the past decade or so in Britain. Menuhin asked violinist Robert Masters to form the orchestra to make recordings, principally of the I 8 h-century classics. But its activities soon expanded and for 10 years, to 1968, its main showcase was the Bath Festival. Last year, with the Queen's permission, the Festival of Windsor came into existence. (The other broadcasts will be on October 22 and November 20).

Search for a revolution if you will, I doubt whether you will find it. Ratings, nevertheless, show that HSV-7 today has the eyes and ears of the majority of viewers. The man behind the campaign is Mr. Bruce Gyngell, who plotted it after transferring angrily from Sydney's Channel Nine to the Seven network. Kennedy was quitting and it was becoming obvious that people wanted a change in their TV; obvious, too, that commercial TV, ratings-bound and sponsor-encrusted, could not give it without drastic Federal intervention.

So the next best thing seemed to be to sell the public the idea of change. PS. As we go to press, we have been handed a statement from GTV-9 which, in effect announces the Channel Nine Counter-Revolu-tion. Here we go again. (Page 1).

THE- TELEVIEWER. Seven Songs of Clement Marot less so. The recording comes from Rumania and the soloist is baritone Dan Lordachescu, who sings in the original 16th-century French of Marot. Schoenberg's symphonic poem, Pelleas and Melisande, will be played by the Southwest German Radio Orchestra under Michael Gielen, from AR, at 9.15 p.m., on Monday, October 5. Daniel Barenboim's Sydney-Melbourne Beethoven festival concerts are being broadcast dur-i the next few months.

The first of the twice-weekly programmes will be from AR at 10.15 p.m. on Tuesday, October 6 when Barenboim will be heard playing A top and tail to recent visit by Yehudi Menuhin The other outstanding event in the week's broadcasts is a new recording of Leoncavallo's swift little tragedy of stolen love, I Pagliacci, which Kenneth Hince will introduce from AR at 8.30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 6. The principals are James McCracken (Canio), Pilar Lorengar (Nedda), Tom Krause (Silvio), Robert Merrill (Tonio) and Ugo Benelli (Beppe). Two compositions by Rumania's best-known composer, Georges Enescu, will be heard from AR, at 11.15' p.m., on Friday, October 2.

One, the Rhapsody No. 2 in is well-known in the West, the Sonata in Op 31, No. 1 and Sonata in F. Op. 10, No.

2 recorded in Melbourne on September 7, Lukas Foss conducts the Hessian Radio Symphony Orchestra in a concert from the International Holiday Seminar of New Music from AR at 11.15 p.m. on Tuesday, October 6. The works are Lach-enmann's Air Music for Grand Orchestra and Percussion and D'un opera de voyage by Jolas. The percussionist is Michael W. Ran la.

The Choir of the Great Synagogue, Sydney will be heard in a special programme to mark the observance of the Jewish Day of Atonement from AR at 10.15 p.m. on Wednesday, October 7. fg Registered trademark AGFA-GEVAERT LIMITEDNNSr MI agfa-gevaert.