The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 21

THE GUARDIAN Saturday June 29 1991 ARTS. PERSOMAL 21 The gravity of our nativity The quiality of Mersey is strained Nancy Banks-Smith The music descends even further to the level of Eurovision Song Contest Geoffrey Thomason on Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio fast tempo, spends most of its time in a lacklustre sub-Puccinian arioso style, except when it descends even further to the level of Eurovision Song Contest blandness. Any reminder that McCartney has in the past written some distinguished melodies Is absent. Worst of all, there is little awareness of the need for recurrent ideas that will bind the work into a whole. It exists as a series of under-differentiated scenes, whose predictable succession becomes tedious in the extreme.

With KM Te Kanawa, Sally Burgess, Jerry Hadley and Willard White as soloists and Carl Davis himself directing the RLPO and chorus with choristers from the cathedral, the oratorio could not have had a more persuasive performance. With the singers on rollers-kates or in catsuits it might just prove a hit on the West End stage, but as a concert work it's an expensive Ian McKellen as Gennaro 'a performance of superb discipline' photograph: douglasjeffery Family at war with itself when even on that occasion its weaknesses are painfully obvious. Some would deem it wrong to apply to a work aimed at popular appeal the critical language reserved for "serious" music, but since the publicity makes it clear that this one begs to be seen as McCartney's first "classical" venture, then let it be judged as such. An hour and a half worth of oratorio dutifully laid out with soloists, chorus and orchestra commands a certain admiration, but where angels fear to tread The banality of the libretto, made worse by a manifest failure to realise its attempts at drama, 1b embarrassing. The music, patently afraid of anything approaching a Michael DHKngton finds broad humanity in Richard Eyre's production of Napoli Milionaria The report on Riviera was another lively item from Europe Express.

Uniquely this soap opera is being made by an American company with French actors in English. It is then dubbed into every other European language so, like a rude gesture, it will be universally understood. English seems to be the first casualty grateful you didn't shat down the but France and America are also glaring at each other. The French are incensed with the Americans: "They are teaching us how to make bad American television." The Americans respond that, if the French want to make a mess of it they had better make it themselves. Barely believing your wonderful luck, you see waddling towards you the undoubted turkey of all time.

Big breasted, feather bloomered and, best of all, French. In 10 By 10 (BBC 2) George Lovegrove was remembering his first school teacher. Who could forget her. "Miss Baker. Gawd bless 'er," said George.

"She was talL She 'ad a bit of a blue beard and a little bit ofa'tache and she used to read Rupert the Bear to us out of the Express paper." In spite of Miss Baker's best efforts, George is a striking example of unwritten history. He remembers every name he ever knew, every word he ever heard. No one is dead while George is alive. "Thaf the old geL She lived on two pints of Guinness a day plus 20 Players. Thaf the old man and that 'orse used to follow him around.

He used to spend most of his money buying apples for 'orses and, when they took that away, he died, din 'e?" In the old photo the sunlight bounced off the shining coat of the big cart horse. It could have eaten an apple off the cap of the little man standing beside it George couldn't see no future in 'orses so he went into demolition. "You can't beat the ball and chain. We was the elite like footballers. Footballers get umpteen hundreds to go and kick a ball abaht What it boils down to is 'oo wants to go and see people doing demolition and 'oo wants to go and see An iron ball knocked at the walL At the dreadful summons the building bulged and buckled and fell to its knees.

Bricks cartwheeled down through the sun A LUCKY and fizzy start to Europe Express (Channel 4) with a report from Croatia. Serbs in Serb bars glower across the road at Croats in Croatian bars: "They provoke us every day. It makes me want to throw a bomb at them." Croats glower back: "Serbs hate us. While we accepted their authority, all was quiet Now they show their true faces." In a wartime grave the brown bones of Serbian communists murdered by Croatian fascists lie with those of Croatian fascists murdered by Serbian communists. No one can tell now from these caramel-coloured skulls which is which.

How strong the pull of our own cabbage patch, the gravity of our nativity. In East (BBC 2) a Bangladeshi woman, kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery in Pakistan, a traffic in women and children known as the flesh trade, lamented her exile with biblical intensity. "If I was at home and married a poor man, he would at least love me. Being a beggar in Bangaldesh would have been better than sleeping on golden beds here." In The Second Russian Revolution (BBC 2) a wonderful series this an Armenian man, searching the earthquake ruins for the body of his mother, saw Gorbachev and talked to him about his bitter sense of loss. Not the loss of his mother but of his motherland, Nabomy Karabakb, a lost province of Armenia.

Gorbachev was shocked. But here is something to unite us all. Riviera is a soap opera which will to appeal to (or appal) every European country equally. "On the surface the de Courceys have everything a family could want Social standing, money. power, but underneath we find a family in turmoil." Well, you can tell, on a gold sofa decorated with brass knobs a lady in black underwear is enthusiastically kneading the chest of a gentleman wearing only shoes, socks and a large cigar.

Before you can say "Oops, pardon!" they are engaged in enthusiastic European congress: "Oh "Ole!" Not to mention oo-la-ia. ONE would hope that a 150th anniversary commission by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society for performance in the city's Anglican cathedral would take account of, if not exploit, its infamous acoustic. Paul McCartney's and Carl Davis's Liverpool Oratorio doesn't, but that's the least of its problems. To begin with, there is the nature of the work itself. McCartney's homage to his native city is a semi-autobiographical account of the growth to manhood of the fictional Shanty, born in the war and destined to marry his Mary Dee.

How much chance does such a Liverpool-centred piece have of a future beyond its gala premiere? Not much I suspect, Croydon Warehouse Nicholas de Jongh The Fishing Trip THE Fishing Trip is set deep in the mid-west of America, where the redness of your neck is flaunted as a badge of pride and the country's flag is flown upon your living room wall. But this provocative and quizzical first play by the Irish actor, Frank Grimes, is not a simple assault upon American jingoism or on people who live by the belief that the United States is the envy of the world. It is more subtle and bracing than that. Grimes organises a series of social and ideological collisions, precipitated by the arrival of an outsider within a closed and all-male environment. The fishing trip of the title is an annual engagement which has happily run for five sporting and hard-drinking years as organised by Jules the and baggy trousers, like some shaggy bear, but when preparing to face the world neatly folds his handkerchief into a perfect square.

He is at his best in the silent grief of the second act where, weighed down by his nightmare memories of war, he simply stares at his transformed wife and her spiwy consort with a hollow-eyed dismay. It is a performance of superb discipline in which McKellen harnesses his overarching physical energy. Clare Higgins is equally impressive as Amalia whom she plays as a busily protective wife and mother whose sensibilities have been blunted by war: instead of making a moral judgment on the character, Ms Higgins makes you question what other options she had. And in a large cast there is an outstanding performance from Geral-dine Fitzgerald as a gawky war-bride forever collapsing into insane giggles and puzzling over whether, since her marriage was unconsummated, she is technically a virgin. Richard Bremmer is also first-rate as a petty-bourgeois accounts clerk reduced by war to a state of mendicant poverty.

But the great feature of Richard Eyre's production is that, although he captures the bustling public nature of Neapolitan family life, he focuses on the key issue: the broad-based humanity of a play that shows how ordinary people are all but destroyed by the economic imperatives of war. selling black-market goods to her neighbours. But what saves the family also destroys it. After being captured by the Germans, her husband, Gennaro, returns in 1944 to find that his wife is now an adulterous racketeer, his son is a thief, his grown-up daughter is planning to decamp with a GI and his youngest daughter is dying. The moral is clear: the family that preys together no longer stays together.

The parallel that constantly comes to mind is O'Casey. Like the great Irishman, Eduardo has a compassion for common folk corrupted by war (think of the looting in The Plough And The Stars) and the ability effortlessly to merge tragedy and comedy. One might object to the over-neat irony by which the fate of Gennaro's dying daughter ultimately hinges on drugs rendered unobtainable by the black market; but one of the lessons taught by Moliere's The Miser in the Olivier is that an active pleasure in contrivance is one of the oldest pleasures in theatre. My initial doubt was whether Ian McKellen as Gennaro could compete with what Thornton Wilder once called Eduardo's "powerful But this is McKellen the character actor at his very best. He shambles around the house, in his vest Yesterday's weather Around the world Obituary: Julijonas Stepanovicius From martyrdom to a miracle YOU sometimes know in a theatre, within a matter of seconds, that you are in safe hands.

The curtain rises on Richard Eyre's production of Eduardo de Filippo's Napoli Milionaria at the Lyttelton to reveal a noisy Neapolitan argy-bargy. Through the open doors of Anthony Ward's stunning set you see a long stone-walled pas sage where people casually loi ter in the late autumn morning sun. Instantly you feel you are in for a good time. Eduardo (as he was always known throughout Italy) wrote this humane wartime comedy in 1945. He brought it to the Aldwych in 1972 with himself playing the lead role with a magisterial stillness.

But the most radical aspect of Peter Tinniswood's new version is, while retaining the Neapolitan setting, to employ Liverpool speech-rhythms. The result gives the show a working-class authenticity and spares us the delight of listening to British actors sounding like a convention of icecream vendors. But what makes this play so moving is its portrait of ordinary people dehumanised by wartime profiteering. It starts in 1942 with Amaua Jovine keeping her family together, despite the head-shaking doubts of her tram-driver husband, by willed himself to be an efficient the Taunton committee. He was impressed by tales of this serious-faced leg-spinner who was consistently taking wickets in Durham and Northumberland.

Wheels wondrously turned and Atkinson was invited to Mill-field to teach English and Latin, and some sport. He had the summer off to play cricket When arthritis in the fingers affected his spinning, he led the Second XI instead, before being invited back to captain the championship side for three years in the sixties. "It was a funny arrangement. Millfield still paid me. Somerset paid them.

So I supposedly retained my amateur status." He switched to seam bowling. He fielded superbly in the covers. And once he got to within three runs of a century. When he walked out at Lords to toss up with Colin Cowdrey, of Kent, in the 1967 Gillette Cup final, he reflected: "That chap is twice as good as me so I have got to try twice as hard." mond and Grafton on each side of him. I sat opposite to him, and he was particularly gracious to me, talking to me across the table and recommending all the good things; he made me (after eating a quantity of turtle) eat a dish of crawfish soup, till I thought I should have burst.

The Greville Memoirs 1814-1860, edited by Christopher Lloyd (Roger Ingram, 1948) WBBm. 26 79 London 18 64 26 79 'Los Annates 18 64 12 54 Luxembourg 13 55 28 82 Madrid 28 82 32 90 Majorca 23 73 28 82 Malaga 26 79 22 72 Malta 32 90 17 63 Manchester 17 63 15 59 Melbourne 12 54 26 79 'Miami 31 88 18 64 'Montreal 30 88 17 63 Moscow 27 81 31 88 Munich 15 59 20 68 Nairobi 23 73 33 91 Naples 27 81 19 68 'Nassau 32 90 15 59 New Delhi 5 39 102 20 68 Newcastle 13 55 9 48 'Athens 28 62 33 91 'New York 32 90 20 68 Nice 25 77 18 64 Oporto 5 25 77 23 73 Oslo 16 64 32 90 Paris Th 15 59 14 57 Peking 27 81 17 63 Perth (Aus) 16 61 29 84 Prague 13 55 26 79 Reykjavik 10 50 15 59 Rhodes 27 81 28 82 'Rio de Jan 25 77 18 61 Riyadh 41 108 25 77 Rome 23 73 27 81 Salzburg 17 63 16 61 Seoul 31 88 23 73 Singapore 32 90 15 59 Stockholm 14 57 23 73 Strasbourg 15 59 16 61 Sydney 5 18 64 18 61 Tangier 29 84 29 84 Tel Aviv 27 81 16 81 Tenerile 23 73 15 59 Tokyo 32 90 25 77 Tunis 30 66 17 63 Valencia 23 73 18 64 Venice 24 75 3 28 62 Vienna 19 86 29 84 Warsaw 17 63 23 73 'Washington 30 88 30 88 Wellington 9 48 25 77 Zurich 14 57 he cannot bear the sight of grass and sees cocaine as a sniff which leads to hell. The first act, which lacks dramatic impetus, still communicates a nagging tension. And it flares in the revelations of the far superior second act Lindsay Anderson's production, with seductive, elegiac music from Alan Price, finely conveys the gradual changes of mood and manners. But he fails to mine the play's homoerotic subtext with the implication that Jules's domination and attempted control of the three men has more emotional resonance than it should.

The acting however is almost uniformly compulsive. Ian Hogg's Jules, a PhD in the histrionics of emotional blackmail, has a comic edge and driving energy while Stuart Miiligan, most persuasive as the riven Pat is set against the brooding force of Paul Birchard's Chuck who conveys menace with the minimum of histrionics. Only Frank Grimes, himself playing Stephen, fails to release the character's egotism and concealed truculence. Colin Atkinson (batting) he Colin Atkinson OLIN Atkinson, who once played league cricket at 10 a week to help pay for his pre- degree research psychology, was a former headmaster of Millfield School and past president of Somerset Cricket Club. His many exceptional qualities were revealed in his administrative and pastoral skills at the school, and in his varied, occasionally contentious duties as captain, chairman and president of Somerset cricket.

But above all he was a fighter, in the truest Yorkshire traditions. This was first evident in his schooldays when ill health limited lessons and kept him away from the sports fields. He made up for lost time, working feverishly to ensure a place at university. And he willed himseii to Dean emcient, never brilliant cricketer and hockey player. Harold Stephenson, the Som erset captain and wicket keeper, recommended Atkinson to Another Day June 29, 1828: 1 dined yesterday with the lung at St James's his Jockey Club dinner.

There were about 30 people, several not being invited whom he did not fancy. The Duke ot Leeds tow me a much greater list had been made out, but he had scratched several out of it We soon went to dinner He sat in the middle, with the Dukes of Rich Irish, middle-aged director of "the With two youngish men, Chuck, his marriage skidded on the rocks and PaC a deferential wimp, as fellow-fishers the sixth season is noisily launched as the play begins, staged on Michael Pavel-ka's sumptuously realistic stage set the extensive ground floor of an all-wooden country and western home. The clash, which occurs ri-vetingly in the second act, is between three worlds rather than two. Steven, the Irish actor who arrives not so much hot as cool from Hollywood, and high on his own ego, casually flies a series of flags of radical and nonconformist spirit for Indians not cowboys, for the grass you smoke not the stuff on which you stand, against Reagan and all his works. Ranged against him are the two youngish men, in whom American politeness vies with American triumphalism.

And between these two forces is Jules himself, an Irishman so made by America, and awed by America's conformist ethic that cathedral, which had been turned into an art gallery, and the Jesuit church of St Casimir, patron of Lithuania, which was the Museum of Atheism. Then Pope John Paul II struck, making Stepanovicius Archbishop of Vilnius just in time for him to celebrate the first mass since the war in the restored cathedral. Overcome with joy, he managed through the tears to talk about the "miracle" they had all experienced. The first mass in the Jesuit Church of St Casimir was celebrated this year on March 4, his feastday, in the presence of President Vytautas Landsber-gis. Jesuits had been illegal in Lithuania.

Now it was discovered that there were over 70 of them, some hidden among the diocesan clergy and others acting as priest-workers. One of them was head of the local nuclear energy plant. Another, Sigitas Tamkevicius was made suffragan bishop of Kaunas, the prewar capital. The last great event that Stepanovicius followed, but only on television because of illness, was the papal visit to Poland. Ten thousand crossed the frontier to hear the Pope express support for their independence struggle.

Peter HebbtothwaKe Julyonas Stepanovicius, born October 18, 1911; died June 18, 1991 of his boyhood graphical novel, Careful, He Might Hear You (1963), which described relatives battling over an orphaned boy. The novel was later filmed in Australia. For the next 25 years he concentrated mainly on novel-writing, including The Man Who Got Away (1972), Water Under The Bridge (1977) and Waiting For Childhood (1987). His stories were preoccupied with the subtleties of family relationships, but his last novel, Fairyland (1990), revealed more about himself in its description of growing up gay in macho Sumner Locke Elliott born October 17, 1917; died June 24, 1991. JULIJONAS Stepanovicius, Archbishop of Vilnius, lived just long enough to witness some remarkable events, though he was too feeble to take much part in them.

He was ordained priest in 1936 when Lithuania's capital, Vilnius, was known as Wilno and was part of Poland. Just about the only thing Stalin ever gave to Lithuania was Vilnius, which became the capital of the new Soviet Lithuanian intellectuals and priests were systematically eliminated or sent to Siberia. Stepanovicius, consecrated bishop in 1955, spent 30 years in internal exile. Conditions were primitive. There was no running water, food was scarce and he was not allowed to exercise his ministry.

The Church was just as harshly treated in the Khrushchev years as under Stalin. Some say more harshly. During the Brezhnev era, matters improved to the extent that he was allowed visitors. As poor as any of his flock, he began to learn first-hand of their trials and difficulties. He now regarded his hidden three decades as a time of preparation for his episcopal ministry.

Pious rather than political, like all Lithuanians he welcomed the Sajudis' independence movement in 1988. He never trusted Mikhail Gorbachev, and subsequent Lithuanian events proved him right. One of Sajudis' first demands was for the restoration of the light long after it was down. Around Britain Report for the 24 hours ended 6 pm yesterday: Temp Weather (day) Sunshine Rain hrs in BUST COAST Tynemouth 9.1 Scarborough 5.8 .01 10 14 Sunny pm 8 13 Sunny pm 8 15 Bright 8 14 Shwra pm 11 17 Bright 10 15 Sunny am 10 17 Bright 10 19 Bright 11 17 Thndr pm 11 18 Cloudy It 18 Bright uteemorpei Skegness Hunatanton. 10.2 .08 8.1 9.8 7.5 7.4 .15 1.8 .02 7.1 Cromer.

Lowestoft- Cfacton Southend Margate Herns Bay SOUTH COAST Folkestone! 4.0 Hastings 3.9 Eestboumn 1.5 .02 12 .65 11 .18 14 .03 10 .02 11 .07 11 .14 11 .06 11 .04 11 11 II 10 11 19 Bright 17 Shwrs pm 17 Cloudy 17 Sunny Brlnhton Worthlng- lo erigni 19 Bright 19 Bright 19 Bright 19 Bright 20 Bright 17 Bright 18 Sunny am 18 Bright 20 HalTpm 23 Bright 19 Bright 19 Sunny 20 Sunny pm 21 Sunny 21 Bright 18 Sunny 18 Sunny 18 Sunny 18 Sunny 17 Sunny Littlehampton 7.4 Bognor Regis 8.6 Hayllng Island 7.5 Southsea 8.0 Ryde 7.8 Sandown 92 Shanklln 9.0 Ventnor 8.4 .02 10 Guernsey. WIST COAST St. ivee 9.3 B2 8.8 12 IB Sunny .05 13 16 Bright 10 17 Bright 12 17 Sunny 13 19 Sunny 12 19 Sunny 12 17 Sunny .01 12 18 Sunny 12 IS Sunny Newquay Saunton Sands. Ilfracomoe 125 westorM-marei SB Blackpool 10.9 Morecambe 11.7 Douglas 9.1 NOIAND Aspairia 8.2 10 19 Bright 9 20 Sunny pm 12 20 Sunny .23 10 18 Bright .18 11 21 Thndr pm .12 12 19 Thndr pm .01 9 18 Sunny .02 10 15 Rain am 10 18 Thndr pm 11 19 Bright 1 Sunny pm 9 21 Sunny Blrmlnghem 11.4 Bristol 10.0 Buxton 7.5 Leeds 3.8 London 5.3 Manchester 10.2 Ross-on-wya WALKS Anglesey 13.1 9 17 Sunny .9.6 11 19 Sunny 13.4 9 17 Sunny 9 16 Sunny pm 9.3 11 19 Sunny Claire Colwyn Bay-Prestatyn Tenby SCOTLAND Aberdeen 5.2 Avlemore 0.9 Dunbar 5.0 Edinburgh 5.4 Eskdalemulr 5.1 Glasgow 10.5 Klnloss 2.3 Lerwick 5.2 Lauchars 5.2 Preatwlclc 12.8 Stornoway 2 Tlroe 9.3 Wick 8.0 .01 9 17 Sunny pm 7 15 Cloudy .02 10 15 Sunny pm 9 18 Bright 7 17 Bright 8 19 Sunny 9 IB Bright 8 13 Bright .05 9 17 Sunny pm 11 17 Sunny 7 15 Cloudy 10 15 Bright 7 16 Bright NOrTTrlERH IRCLAND Belfast 8.6 9 17 Bright 'Reading not available. Pollen count Paraeaetfar Forecast for tMa nMnttnfl) Tomorrow Can London 20 higher Nth London 4 no change Bournemouth- 62 higher Isle of Wight 72 no change Runnymede 41 no change Cardiff 220 no change Salford 104 no change Warwick 48 hlghor Derby 33 higher Leicester 15 higher Hull 45 no change Scunthorpe 8 higher Swansea 69 higher Rotherham 17 higher Darlington 25 higher Edinburgh 8 no change Low indicates up lo 50 grains per cubic metre 'of air.

High Is over 50. Reading unavailable. Manchester readlngo From 6pm Thursday am yesterday: Mln lamp 9C (48FJ. From 6am lo 6pm yesterday. Max temp 18C (64F).

Total period: sunshine. 10.2 hrs; rainfall, Bournemouoi u-u Poole 9.1 8 Swanage 7.1 9 Weymouth 10.2 11 Exmouth a7 11 Telgnmouth 10.3 8 Torquay 6.9 15 Falmouth 11.1 11 Penzance 12.2 12 Isles of Scllly 9.0 12 Jersey 10.6 12 12.8 11 Alaeelo Algiers Amsterdam Atrtens Bahrain 'Barbados Barcelona Belorade Berlin 'Bermuda Rlairlrr Birmingham Bomoay Bordeaux 'Boston Bristol Brussels Budapest 'B Aires Celro Cape Town Cardiff Casablanca 'Chicago CalMim Copenhagen corru 'Denver Dublin Dubrovnik Edinburgh Faro Florence Frankfurt Funchal Geneva Gibraltar Glasgow Helsinki Hong Kong Innsbruck Inverness Istanbul Jersey Jo'burg Kerachi Lamaea La3 Palmss Lisbon Locarno cloudy; Dr, drizzle: F. fair; Fg, fog; haH; rain; SI. sleet; Sn, snow; sunny; Th, thunder. (Previous day's readings) Sun and moon Today SUN RISES- 0446 2121 0657 2239 SUN SETS- MOON SETS- MOON RISES- MOON: Last qtr July SUN RISES- 0448 2121 0807 2257 SUN SETS- MOON SETS- MOON RISES MOON: Last qtr July Lighting-up Today Belfast Birmingham 2204 to 0451 2134 to 0448 2131 to 0457 2203 to 0436 2121 to 0446 2142 to 0443 2149 10 0431 2135 to 0442 2203(0 0452 2134 to 0449 2131 to 0457 2206 to 0438 2121 to 0447 2141 to 0444 2149 to 0432 2135 to 0444 tinstoi Glasgow London Manchester- Newcastle- Nottingham- Belfast- Birmingham-Bristol Glasgow Manchester Newcastle- Nottingham- High tides Today London Bridge 0405 Dover 0110 Liverpool 0111 Avotimouth 0927 Hull 0824 Greenock 0234 Leith 0437 Dun Laognalra 0123 6.7 1612 6.1 1325 8.S 1332 11.9 2143 6.9 2057 3.2 1451 5.1 1713 3.0 1355 6.7 62 8.5 12.1 6.6 2.9 5.1 3.5 Dun Uoghalrs 0158 London readings From 8pm Thursday to Sam yesterday: Mln tamp 12C (64F).

From 6am to 6pm yesterday: Max temp 1BC (66F). Total period: sunshine, fA3hra; rainfall, WtMtftsr Forecast, pags 84 Tomorrow London Bridge 0441 8.7 1648 8.7 Oover 0141 8.0 1357 62 Liverpool 0148 8.9 1408 8.5 Avonmoiitti 1000 11.9 2215 12.1 Hull 0857 7.0 2129 6.7 Greenock 0307 32 1525 3.0 Lailh 0510 5.1 1745 5.0 39 1432 3.5 4KtvexfKnr' is. sions were kept in check. Atkinson never courted popularity. "My philosophy as captain was to stuff the opposition in a fair way.

Someone once said I was too nice to be a skipper. Perhaps an element of shyness appeared to make me nicer than I really was." The CBE came to him in 1989; he was a hot tip for the chairmanship of the TCCB last year. Instead he was already ilL Ironically, his career was by then changing course. He was showing himself an astute businessman and leading HTV West with a firm, enthusiastic hand. Almost his last public appearance, poignantly, was to attend Jack Meyer's memorial service.

He was by now desperately ill and it was a courageous decision. Atkinson was still fighting. David Foot Colin Atkinson, born July 23, 1931; died June 25, 1991 Kubellk, conductor, composer, 77. Tomorrow: John Fraser, MP, 57; Keith Grant, dean, faculty of design, Kingston Polytechnic, 57; Tony Hatch, composer, arranger, 52; Lena Home, singer, 74; Christopher Lloyd, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, 46; James Loughran, conductor, 60; Frank Marcus, playwright, 63. cricketer Atkinson became head in 1971.

Under him, Millfield grew and consolidated. He was analytical, never resorting to snap judgments. The pupils saw him as "firm but He surrounded himself with an outstanding teaching staff. "I'd hate to be remembered," he used to confide, "as the man who simply put up the buildings at Millfield." He instilled a family feeling; his own happy home life, built round his wife, the supportive Shirley, and his children, Sally, David and Jonathan (who briefly played for Somerset) underlined this. At Millfield, he didn't recoil from the occasional disciplinary measures.

In the same way, he chaired thelaut crisis meeting at Shepton Mallet, following the sackings of Viv Richards and Joel Garner and the defection of Ian Botham, with a calm sense of diplomacy and indeed brevity. He was possibly the main reason that fierce pas- Dirthdays Today: Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, 80; Ian Ban-nen, actor, 63; Charlotte Bingham, novelist, television playwright, 49; Dr Jeremy Bray, MP, Opposition spokesman on science and technology, 61; Sir Rex Hunt, former Governor of the Falkland Islands, 65; Sir Brian Hutton, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, 60; Jean Kent, actress, 70; Rafael Sumner Locke Elliott A man in search AN Australian who lived in the United States for the last 40 years, Sumner Locke Elliott began as an actor in Sydney, made his name as a playwright in the golden age of American television drama in the fifties, and then established himself as a well-reviewed, best-selling novelist. The son of two Australian writers, he was orphaned as a boy, was brought up by various relatives, served in the Australian army in the second world war, and then moved to New York in 1948, becoming an American citizen in 1955. He wrote more than 30 original plays for TV until the market for. original dramas dried up.

Then he began a new career with a much-praised autobio.