The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 21

THE GUARDIAN Saturday September 8 1990 ARTS, PERSONAL 21 Obituary: A. J. P. Taylor Birthdays ireatt ltoiistory9 DiHMe IirccjiDainidl Today: Anne Diamond, television presenter, 36; Jean-Louis Barrault, actor, 80; Prof. Sir Derek Barton, FRS, organic chemist, 72; Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, composer, 56; Michael Frayn, playwright, novelist, 57; Stefan Johansson, racing driver, 34; Sir Denys Lasdun, architect, 76; Lord Maude former Conservative minister, 78; Geoff Miller, England cricketer, 38; Jack Rosenthal, playwright, 59; Yves St Martin, jockey, 49; Sir Harry Secombe, comedian, singer, 69; Prof.

Ernst Sondheimer, mathematician, 67. Tomorrow: Michael Aldridge, actor, 70; Pauline Baynes, book illustrator, 68; John Curry, ice skater, 41; Eric Forth, MP, 46; Gareth Davies, rugby footballer, 34; Sir John Gorton, CH, former Australian Robin Hyman, publisher, 59; Sir Anthony Parsons, former ambassador to the United Nations, 68; Sue Rodwell, playwright, 35; Dr Shirley Summerskill, former Labour MP, 59; Margaret Tyzack, actress, 59. In yesterday's Birthdays, Joe Newman's age should have been 68. Alan Taylor poised at his Remington in March 1976 included Lord Russell, J. B.

Priestley and Michael Foot, but Taylor's moral passion and demagogic art dominated that evening. He outlined the effects of an H-bomb explosion so many miles of total destruction, so many miles of partial destruction, so many miles of uncontrollable fires, so many miles of lethal fall-out paced about in silence and then inquired squeakily: "Is there anyone here who would want to do this to another human being? A hush descended as though for a count-down, "Then why are we making the damned thing?" Pandemonium As a teacher Taylor left a lasting impression on his students, and no other historian of his time has made a greater impact on the historical understanding of the political and media elite in Britain. Taylor's trenchantly pragmatic accounts of the events of the recent past the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe became the accepted version for many generations of university students, albeit at a time when historical debate was largely absent from political discourse. Many of his disciples went into politics or journalism, and, while retaining enormous affection for their master, ended up somewhat to his right, in the SDP typically, rather than on the old Tribunite wing of the Labour Party, which was Taylor's natural home. Part of his enduring influence was almost certainly due to the fact that for many years he kept up a kind of further education course in history through his sparkling and outspoken book reviews in the Guardian, New Statesman and the Observer later collected into delightful volumes of essays.

Like other leftwingers of his J.P.TAYLOR, Who yesterday jng aged 84, was the popular historian of his time. A first class academic, a stimulating tutor, a persuasive writer, and a brilliant iocturer, his fame among his contemporaries was chiefly due to his early understanding and domination of the new medium of television. Far too left-wing in his views to be a successful politician, he was a talented and witty debater with an actor's sense of timing. As with Macaulay, who (it is said) could memorise a page at a glance, Taylor had the gift (coupled with assiduous preparation) of being able to deliver a lecture without a single note, and to make an unscripted broadcast to exactly the right length (a trick he learnt when giving propaganda talks to Germany on the radio during the second world war). At Oxford in his heyday he could fill the largest lecture hall to overflowing, even at 9 o'clock in the morning.

Born in Lancashire of prosperous dissenting stock, Alan Taylor was a lifelong Radical and an early left wing socialist. His historical heroes were those he called "the Troublemakers," the men and women who for nearly two centuries dissented from the Establishment view of British policy towards the outside world. Taylor wrote about them in one of his most stimulating books, and happily inserted himself into their lineage. He was always with the iconoclastic minority, whether speaking out against appeasement in the 1930s, attacking the Cold War in the 1940s, or helping to launch the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1958 at the Central Hall, Westminster. His platform competitors PHOTOQRAPH: PETER JOHNS scribes some of the vicissitudes of his private life.

He was in some ways a lonely man but, though not much given to the social round, he was extremely good company, with a fund of sharp and caustic tales about the great and the good. His reputation as a historian may, as fashion changes, suffer a decline more especially since diplomatic history is so out of vogue. Even in his heyday, Taylor's lack of enthusiasm for theory often left him isolated, both on the right and the left. But his judgments will for the most part stand the test of time. He will long be remembered as a hardworking master craftsman who had the skill to lay out the fruits of his researches and of his original mind with elegance and humour for the benefit of all those intrigued by the story of the past.

wicked and unscrupulous than many other contemporary statesmen." "Go on, go on," Taylor would shout on television when taxed with this phrase, "read the next sentence." And the hapless interviewer would have to read out the immediately following phrase: "in wicked acts he outdid them Controversial at the time, the book itself soon established a new orthodoxy. Although Taylor wrote nearly 30 books, his reputation as a historian lies chiefly with the ones already referred to, together with The Struggle for Mastery in Europe (a diplomatic history of Europe in the aftermath of 1848), and his history of England from 1914 to 1945, a book that showed that his domination of social and economic history was at least as powerful as his control over the intricacies of diplomacy hitherto regarded as his chief strength. He also wrote a witty and amusing autobiography, A Personal History (1983), which de- Beaverbrook Library, enjoyed himself editing a number of books including the diaries of Lloyd George's mistress, Frances Stevenson, and the political interviews of another old Guardian editor, W. P. Crazier.

Probably his most significant historical work was The Origins of the Second World War (1961). Taylor annoyed most of the Establishment historians of the time by arguing that Hitler followed no great plan to make himself master of the world. He concluded the book with a phrase of apparent flippancy about the diplomacy of August 1939 that infuriated many reviewers yet contained a kernel of truth: "Hitler may have projected a great war all along; yet it seems from the record that he became involved in war through launching on August 29 a diplomatic manoeuvre which he ought to have launched on August 28." Taylor was often criticised, too, for writing in the same book that "in principle and doctrine, Hitler was no more 1930s, and he became close friends with the professor, Lewis Namier, and with A. P. Wadsworth, later a great editor.

Malcolm Muggeridge, then a leader-writer on the paper, lived in the same block of flats. Taylor always claimed that Wadsworth had taught him to write. "An article in the Guardian," Wadsworth would say, "is no good unless people read it on the way to work." Wadsworth employed Taylor as a book-reviewer, as writer on historical topics, and (towards the end of the war) as a leader-writer on foreign affairs. They eventually quarrelled, however, over the Cold War. In 1938 Taylor moved to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he remained as a tutor and lecturer for a quarter of a century, but never achieved the professorships that many regarded as his due.

At the time it was a scandal, but if there were disappointments, Taylor accepted them with fortitude. Subsequently he came to London and, as first and last director of the Deaths Ivan Mihailoff, known as the "Bandit King" of Macedonia, has died in Rome at 94. He spent most of his long life trying to overcome the Turkish, Bulgarian, Greek and Yugoslav domination of his native land on the Balkan peninsula. From a secret mountain hideout in the 1920s and 30s he waged guerrilla attacks on Bulgarian government troops arid police. With bis wife, he also fought rival Macedonian revolutionary groups.

In a 12-year period, his Interior Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation killed an estimated 3,500 enemies one assassination reportedly carried out by his wife. He claimed many of these assassinations were really the work of his enemies. Outlawed by Bulgaria, he and his wife es caped to Turkey in 1934, and alter the second world war when hopes for Macedonian in dependence were not fulfilled, he settled in Rome. W. J.W.

respondent, and including John Mordant of Frontliners, Dr Margaret Johnson, Aids consultant at the Royal Free Hospital, Richard Davenport-Hines, author of Sex, Death And Euik ishment, and Michael Mason, editor of Capital Gay. Tickets available from the NFT box-office (071-928 3232). Around Britain Roport for the 24 hours onded 6 pm yesterday: Sun- Temp shine Rain 'C Weather hrs In (day) ENGLAND Birmingham-Bristol Leeds 8.7 II 19 Sunny 9.8 12 20 Sunny 6.9 .05 II 19 Showers Derek Malcolm reports on catcalls and cheers atthe Venice Film Festival 1 Richard Oott Alan John Percivale Taylor born March 25, 1906; died Septembers, 1990. LONGTIME Companion, the first major American movie to deal with the Aids epidemic, will be given a special preview tomorrow at 11 am at the National Film Theatre in the Guardian Screen Event series. This will be followed by a discussion chaired by Nicholas de Jongh, The Guardian's arts cor Michael Billington discovers revolution on the syllabus at the Lyttelton The word versus the fist Mews conference Yesterday's weather time, Taylor had a particular affection for Lord Beaverbrook, whose official biographer he eventually became.

He was a frequent and polemical contributor to the pages of Beaver-brook's Sunday Express and Evening Standard. The concept of a leftwing nationalist historian, quite understandable in Gaullist France, struck many British contemporaries as odd. But Taylor was always an unrepentant Little Englander perhaps even a Little Lancastrian at heart. His developed sense of nationalism, and his enthusiasm for the rights and sensibilities of small nations, was certainly rooted in Lancashire, but it was fertilised by the years of studying the history of Central Europe and the Balkans. He often expressed the wish that Britain could have abandoned its empire as light-heartedly as did Austria-Hungary.

Taylor had a long connection both with Manchester and with the Manchester Guardian. He was a history lecturer at the university throughout the Rapulana Seiphemo as Thami His own production, staged on a simple wooden platform, also contains three wonderfully impassioned performances. John Kani as Mr is not simply a Karoo Mr Chips but a baggy-trousered philanthropist and ardent missionary who argues the case for a liberal education with all banners flying: the actor's own spirit informs everything he says. Lisa Fugard as Isabel also conveys excellently the character's transformation from girlish, hockey-sticks enthusiasm to chastened maturity. And, although he ultimately has the worst of the argument, Rapulana Seiphemo accepted 16 years in exile." You can't interview yourself any more than you can tickle yourself.

It is almost bound to turn out something like Frank and Ernest, a couple of American missionaries whose powerful encounters I used to enjoy on Radio Luxembourg. Frank would ask frank questions like "How do I know I shall be saved?" and Ernest would give earnest answers like "It says so in You could not but feel they were both on the same side. Still and all, Talking To Myself is only 10 minutes long. It is worth 10 minutes of anyone's time to find out what well known people don't want to tell you about themselves. In the course of Casualty (BBC I) an aged bronchitic with a broken wrist is seen determinedly stumping his way back to his frozen flat.

You can see his point of view. Holmby casualty is no rest cure. It reminds you of a TV Dante, writhing bodies wall to wall getting it in the neck for all eternity. The last series ended with an explosion in a department store, this one began with a riot on the football terraces and you can be assured the staff are in the middle of some personal trauma. Megan (Breads sents the impatient black young who want freedom now.

And Isabel symbolises the dawning social conscience of privileged young whites determined to work for a just society. What Fugard has to say is of vital importance but there are times when you can hear the sound of dice being loaded. At one point Mr confronts Thami with a dictionary in one hand and a stone in the other and asks him to weigh up the power of one against the impotence of the other. It's a good theatrical image but it begs the whole question of how one is to change an educational system which was designed to prevent blacks being educated. Fugard also writes as if a knowledge of Eng Lit culture were the surest means to political advancement: it is one way but I saw for myself in South Africa this year young blacks who had achieved self-respect through exploration of their own folk-culture, music and dance.

But it is a sign of the quality of Fugard's play that it triggers off debates inside one's own head. It also contains scenes of fine irony such as that in which Thami and Isabel compete in their knowledge of the Romantic poets and he wipes the floor with her on Byron, the supreme apostle of political freedom: One of Fugard's virtues is that he doesn't just theorise about the magical excitement of language: he demonstrates it. 7.8 13 19 Bright 7.8 .04 10 17 Sunny am 4.3 .09 10 15 Sunny am 5.3 .19 11 16 Rain am 7.8 10 19 Bright 1.9 12 16 Cloudy 7.7 11 20 Sunny 4.4 .11 10 15 Cloudy 5.0 .27 10 15 Sunny am 5.3 .09 11 17 Shwrs am 4.5 .08 11 17 Showers 4.3 .05 11 16 Shwrs am 3.0 .11 8 16 Showers 5.0 .16 11 17 Showers 4.4 .02 11 17 Shwrs am 3.5 12 19 Cloudy 10 17 Cloudy 2.1 10 18 Cloudy 5.3 11 19 Bright 9.1 11 19 Bright 8.8 12 20 Sunny pm 14 20 Sunny 76 11 20 Sunny pm 9.6 11 20 Sunny 9.5 11 20 Sunny pm 10.1 12 20 Sunny 9.9 12 21 Sunny 10.0 12 20 Sunny 8.5 12 20 Sunny 9.2 11 20 Sunny 10.2 11 20 Sunny 10 1 11 21 Sunny 10.2 12 21 Sunny 10.7 11 21 Sunny 10.0 11 21 Sunny 8.2 11 18 Sunny 9.0 12 18 Sunny 8.1 12 19 Bright .08 12 18 Sunny 10.0 13 18 Sunny 9.5 13 18 Sunny 9.1 13 19 Sunny 11.0 12 18 Sunny 10 1 about an upper middle-class married couple in the Amer ica of the thirties and forties, whose happy liaison gradually goes stale as the dren grow up and go their own way. He (Paul Newman) is a stiff lawyer set in his ways. She (Woodward) is a woman whose whole life has always been devoted to husband and children at the expense of any kind of self-fulfilment.

The film is about quite ordinary people living out ordi nary uneventful lives which never really change, however hard they try, and it is one of Ivory's best. Certainly Woodward as Mrs Bridge is superbly right, managing to give a tunny as well as moving perfor mance without a hint of over play. Newman, though more one dimensional, is good too, as the nice steady man who can't see beyond the end of his opinionated nose. But the sleeper so far has been the Canadian film, The Company Of Strangers, in which' seven old ladies, whose bus breaks down on an outing, are forced to seek shelter in an abandoned farmhouse and solace from each other. Unpromising material, perhaps, but Cynthia Scott's charming first feature is so naturally acted and so sympathetic to the vexed problem of old age that it sweeps all before it.

Though the soloist, Mitsuko Uchida, did her utmost to prove its lyricism, the piece remained heartless, like Brahms with all the wrong notes. The vigil found its focus after the break in the two liturgical works which made up the BBC Singers' programme in the late-night Prom. Conducted by John Poole, the singers displayed a new degree of expressiveness which was like having a light switched on. There was nothing unin-volved in this account of the fine Mass for double chorus by Frank Martin, a composer who can often seem chilly and detached. The BBC Singers brought out the keen contrasts, and were even more in their element when they came to the second work, the formidable Requiem of Alfred Schnittke.

This characteristically dramatic and emotional piece was written in 1975 in memory of the composer's mother, a devout Catholic, who had just died. The fresh attack, the new response in each of the 14 sections, speaks not only of his personal grief, but of a response to Soviet society and its repressions. He uses such unlikely instruments as electric guitar and flexatone to heighten the dramatic bite of his often jagged but sympathetic writing, effects in which the London Sinfo-nietta vigorously backed their choral colleagues. THE UNEXPECTED usually happens at the Venice Film Festival. But even hardened observers of the chaotic scene rubbed their eyes in disbelief when an impromptu press conference starring three cats took place this week on the balcony of the Excelsior hotel.

The cats were called Romeo, Juliet and Mercutio, and are the stars, together with John Hurt (playing an old baglady with a rat on a lead), of Armando Acosta's Romeo And Juliet, described as "a musical and visual ballet where the poetic essence of Shakespeare's work is adapted to the music of The film, whose balcony scene takes place on the top of Cyclone, the Coney Island rollercoaster, may make cat lovers purr, but the exits of the cinema in which it was shown to the international press were blocked with critics trying to get out within half an hour of its start. The jury, headed by Gore Vidal this year, will not have to pronounce on this epic production, but, among the films in competition, it could do a lot worse than give Joanne Woodward the best actress prize for her splendid performance in James Ivory's Mr And Mrs Bridge. This is adapted from Evan Connell's two novels, Mr Bridge and Mrs Bridge, Albert HallRadio 3 Edward Greenfield Cleveland Orchestra BBC Singers WITH two Proms in one eve ning, it was more like a vigil than a concert, particularly when all four works had religious faith at their heart. Nnr that the devotional element was all that clear in the two pieces in the Cleveland Orchestra's programme under fihristnnh von Dohnanvi. The symphonies of the devoutly uatnoiic BrucKner reguiariy hrine in the vast span of rugged Gvmnhnnic arguments and in the sustained slow movements experiences as spiritual as in any church service, but not from Dohnanyi.

wit-h nla vine of extraordi nary resonance and clarity, the penormance seemeu aimusi iuu flawless, unable to grab at thp rfpener feelines. Signifi cantly in the great Adagio, Doh nanyi toOK tne contrasting mu-derato sections unusually fast, speeding the meditation. Before that came the Schoen-berg Piano Concerto of 1942, frnm the neriod when the com- iwur's Jewish roots became a primary source of inspiration. IMPORTED to the Lyttelton from the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, Athol Fu-gard's My Children! My Africa! is an engrossing play about the importance of education in a changing South Africa. Fugard writes from a liberal-humanist standpoint.

But what is fascinating is that his sentiments coincide almost exactly with those of Nelson Mandela who not so long ago told students to throw their weapons into the sea and go back to school. Set in a small Eastern Cape town in 1984, Fugard's play starts with an inter-school debate about sexual equality. Thami, a black boy, confronts Isabel, a pharmacist's white daughter, under the watchful eye of Mr a Confucian teacher. An old-fashioned idealist, Mr decides to turn the debating opponents into allies and enter them jointly in an English Literature quiz at the Grahamstown Schools Festival. But the plan is scuppered both by Thami's increasing political militancy and by the advent of the schools boycott.

The pupil turns against his master who persists in keeping the school open during the strikes and demonstrations. Fugard's play itself takes the form of a debate with argument and counter-argument emerging from the three representative characters. Mr stands for traditional political optimism and a belief in the sacred-ness of language. Thami repre Duet for Nancy Banks-Smith ERNIE Winters was once doing his stuff to a peculiarly porridgy audience. The face, the voice, the dog, the lot.

Nothing. With a brotherly backup commendable in the circumstances, Miko Winters arrived on cue. "Mj God!" said an appalled voice from the audience "There are two of I was reminded of this by Talking To Myself (BBC 2), a fetchingly lunatic idea, in which people interview themselves, "I have a guest with me this evening, who needs no introduction to me nor I to him. It is, yes it is, Enoch Powell!" said Enoch Powell. He was wearing a light grey three piece suit.

Enoch Powell, on the other hand, was wearing a dark grey three piece suit. Both had a matching grey moustache and spoke on the same flat, nasal note like the whine of wind in telephone wires. Enoch Powell is one of the last great parliamentary orators. Oratory does not suit television. He opposed televised parliament to the end.

Around the world (Lunch-time reports) AJaccio Algiers Amsterdam Athens Bahrain Barcelona 'Barbados Belgrado Berlin Biarritz 'Bermuda Bombay Bordeaux 'Boston Bristol Brussels Budapest Aires Cairo Cape Town Cardilf Casablanca 'Chicago Cologne Copenhagen Corlu 'Dallas Denver Dublin Oubrovnlk Edinburgh Faro Florence Frankfurt Funchat Geneva Gibraltar Glasgow Helsinki Hong Kong Innsbruck Inverness Istanbul Jorsey Jo'burg Karachi Larnaca Las Palmas Lisbon Locarno London 26 79 33 9t 15 59 29 84 34 93 'Los Angeles Luxembourg Madrid Majorca Malaga Malta Manchester 26 79 10 50 29 84 28 82 32 90 30 86 Th 20 68 31 88 16 61 23 73 16 61 20 68 29 64 29 84 20 66 24 75 17 63 13 55 22 72 15 59 31 88 16 61 18 64 25 77 34 93 13 55 16 61 Melbourne 13 55 21 70 32 90 15 59 23 73 Mexico City Miami Moscow 'Montreal Munich Nairobi Naples New Delhi 'Nassau Newcastle New York Nice Oporto Oslo Paris Peking Perth Prague Reykjavik Rhodes 11 52 26 79 26 79 25 77 28 92 13 55 28 82 25 77 19 66 15 59 17 63 27 81 17 63 16 61 28 82 37 99 25 77 14 57 24 75 15 59 25 77 27 81 13 55 25 77 14 57 27 81 16 61 13 55 34 93 12 54 14 57 25 77 16 61 23 73 32 90 29 84 27 81 25 77 20 68 17 83 8 46 27 61 'Rio de Jan Riyadh Rome Salzburg Seoul Singapore Stockholm Strasbourg Sydney Tangier Tel Aviv Tenerlfe Tokyo Tunis Valencia 'Vancouvor Venice Vienna Warsaw 23 73 1 106 26 79 13 55 30 86 31 88 12 54 15 59 17 63 26 79 28 82 27 81 21 70 30 86 27 81 19 66 24 75 15 59 16 61 'Washlnglon Wellington Zurich 31 88 11 52 11 52 C. cloudy; Dr, drizzle; F. lair; Fg, (og; hall; rain; SI, sleet; Sn, snow; sunny; Tli. thunder. (Previous day's readings) Sun and moon Today Tomorrow SUN RISES 0623 1933 1058 2018 SUN SETS- MOON SETS- MOON RISES MOON: Last qlr Sept 1 1th SUN RISES SUN SETS MOON SETS-MOON RISES- 0624 1931 1225 2045 MOON: Last qlr Sept 11lh Ughting-up Today Belfast- 2001 10 0644 1941 to 0630 1942 to 0634 1956 to 0635 1933 to 0624 1944 to 0631 1943 to 0626 1940 to 0627 1953 10 0645 1938 to 0631 1940 10 0636 1953 10 0637 1931 to 0626 1941 to 0632 1940 to 0627 1938 to 0629 Birmingham- Bristol Glasgow London Manchester- Newcastle- Nottingham- Tomorrow Ratfasl Birmingham- brisioL.

Glasgow London Manchester- Newcastle- Nottingham- High tides Today London Bridge 0438 Dover 0128 7.3 1645 7.4 6.7 1346 6.9 9.9 1404 9.4 13.5 2222 13.6 7.8 2125 7.4 Liverpool 0145 Avonmouth 1003 Hull 0855 Greenock 0312 Leltli 0509 Dun Laoghalre 0151 Tomorrow London Bridge 0S14 Dover 0206 Liverpool 0223 Avonmouth 1039 Hull 0934 3.7 1535 5.8 1744 4.4 1420 3.5 5.5 4.1 7.1 1721 6.6 1424 9.7 1442 13.1 2302 12.9 7.7 2203 7.2 3.7 1612 3.5 5.7 1828 5.3 4.4 1504 4.0 Greenock 0349 Lellh 0554 Dun Laoghalre 0236 London readings From 6pm Thursday to 6am yesterday; Mln temp (dm-), i-rom earn io opm yesteraay: Max temD 19C (66F). Total period: sunshine. 7.8 hrs; ralnlall. nil. Weather Forecast, page 24 one in three piece suits Manchester Newcastle! Nottingham Ross-on-wye EAST COAST Tynemouth Scarborough Cteethorpes Skegness Hunstanion Cromer Lowestolt Claclon Southend nymoum Margate Heme Bay SOUTH COAST Folkestone Hastings Eastbourne Brtahtan Worthlng- Littlehmtpton Bognor Regis Southsea- Hyde Sandown Shanklln ventnor Bournemouth Poole Swanage Weymouth Exmoulh Telgnmoulh Torquay Isles of Scillv Jersey Guernsey- WEST COAST St.

lves 12 IS Sunny 13 16 Bright 13 15 Cloudy 13 18 Bright 12 20 Sunny 12 17 Bright 12 17 Sunny 11 17 Sunny 10 15 Cloudy pm 13 17 Cloudy 10 18 Bright 12 15 Cloudy am 13 15 Cloudy 11 17 Bright 9 15 8 13 9 16 8 17 6 14 9 16 10 15 9 15 7 18 10 16 9 15 11 15 5 14 Cloudy Bright Bright pm Bright Bright Sunny Bright Sunny pm Sunny pm Sunny Bright Bright Rain am 5.0 .02 NORTHERN IRELAND Ballast 1.7 10 15 Bright Reading not available. Major roadworks South-Eatt Milt contraflow J6-7. MSOt contraflow J8. M23i contraflow JB J9 (M25Gatwlck). MaSi J13: lane restrictions J18-J21.

M40i lane closures J4-J5; weekend restrictions J1A (M25I: lane restrictions be- Waat country and Watoa contraflow J16; contraflow J29-Thornhlll; lane closures J41a-38. Midlands. AnoHa Mil lane closure J21-J22; contraflow J26-027; contraflow J29-J30. MSi contraflow J2(M69); restrictions 33; narrow lanes Jtw: soutnoouno exit sup roan at J6 (A38m) closed; contraflow J8-10; all slip roads J9 dosed; contraflow J14, slip roads closures. North Mil contraflow J29-30; northbound slip road closed J34; contraflow J43-47.

Mflli lane restrictions northbound J3. M62i lane closures J18 4 J19; contraflow J22-23. Scotland M8i both entry slip roads closed J13, Road information compiled and supplied by aa Hoaawatcn. Manchester readings From 6pm Thursday to 6am yesterday: Mln temp 10C (50F). From 6am to 6pm yesterday: Max temD 17C (83F).

Total period: aunst.ine. 7.8 hrs: rainfall, .04 In. 7.2 Newquay Saunton Sands 1.1 Minehead 7.9 Weslon-s-mare 9.3 Soulhport 7.6 .23 Blackpool. 7.5 .23 Morecambe 6.7 .19 Douglas 6.9 .26 WALES Anglesey 4.5 Cardiff 7.9 ColwynBay 32 Prestatyn .04 Tonby 6.7 SCOTLAND Aberdeen, 1.4 .01 Avlamoro. 5.1 .27 Dunbar 1.4 .06 Edinburgh 3.7 .09 Eskdalemulr 3.2 .03 Glasgow 8.6 Klnloss; 3.3 .02 Lerwicll 53 Leuchars 4.2 .02 Prastwick 9.1 .01 Stornoway 5.9 .02 Tlree 3.6 .09 Wick PHOTOGRAPH: DOUGLAS JEFFERY as Thami earned the loudest applause at the Lyttelton for his ringing declaration of revolutionary fervour.

As a dramatist, Fugard is not afraid of didacticism; but at least he practises what he preaches and here puts the case for the cen-trality of a liberal education with impassioned, gospelling eloquence. My Children! My Africa! is at the Lyttelton until September 15 and then tours to Hackney Empire, Nottingham Playhouse, Warwick Arts Centre, Wolver-. hampton Grand and Cambridge Arts Centre. Flicker), nicely recovered from her dependence on tranqui-lisers, has only this morning seen her husband interred beneath a large wreath of yellow daisies saying TED, the two new doctors are at each others throats and, if you ask me, the porter's been at the oxygen. This is the fifth series of Casualty and the BBC has not managed to sell it anywhere.

It is, perhaps, quite difficult to follow. Voices, noises and unanswered phones overlap; story lines vanish into the distance like railways tracks. You have to be in cracking physical condition to keep up with Casualty. Clive Anderson Talks Back (Channel 4) returns. How nice to see you again, come in, sit down, have a drink, have another.

The great charm of the show is Clive Anderson himself, who seems to have strayed innocently off the street into a world of showbiz exhibitionists, who probably emerged from the womb doing encores. He looks the way we like to think we would on television, self conscious but clever. We wouldn't, you know. Joke of the show "If Saddam Hussein invades just one more country, a crack squad of French farmers will set fire to his sheep." "I have to tell you," Mr. Powell said to Mr.

Powell "you are not the man you were. You've become old. Putting it another way, there not so much left as there has been. Can you tell me what it's all been about?" A generous invitation, briskly accepted. Like Othello, upon this hint Enoch spake.

"The most important thing I ever did, and perhaps the only important thing I ever did, was in 1939 when I threw up my position in Australia, came home and joined the army. It was the recognition of something to which I belonged, which had an unlimited claim upon my obedience, my allegiance. And that thought has been with me ever since." Surprisingly for so logical a man, his life seems to have been a headlong love affair with the. British Empire, the Conservative Party and "this wonderful the House of Commons. He lost the lot.

I was enthralled by the classical architecture of his sentences. People don't talk like that. Well, of course, the Romans did. Listen to him on British entry to the EC. "So strong was my objection to it in parliament when it was introduced and so strong has been my objection to it ever since that I have.