Evening Standard from London, Greater London, England • 3

4 i By James Johnson WITH waist-length hair and a style of pop-influenced ballads Crystal Gayle proves that country music is no longer simply the province of cowboys and red-' Decks She is one of the leaders in a nwvement that" hasmixed country music with pop and attracted a large following The BBC has discovered that country musto shows are popular with viewers and as aresult Crystal Gayle recently voted the worlds top female country ringer appears on BBL-s tonight in the first of a new series Other artists featured in the seriM Larry Gatlin the llillriders George Hamilton IV and Carl Perkins Each show has been 'recorded at the Maltings in Suffolk and together they could be the start of an annual series gays a BBC spokesman: found country music shows have gradually been attracting a larger audience the kind of music that is quite popu lar in the charts these days without offending th nldAr mat mixed country musi so attracted a large following CRYSTAL GALS no longer the province of cowboys and rednecks viewers By Charles' Catchpole ONE OF the brightest sitcoms to emerge from America in years is currently wasting away -before a handful of insomniacs and shift workers at the ludi- crous -hour of 1L45 every Tuesday night The series Lou Grant' also happens to be the only' worthwhile and convincing television portrspal I have ever seen of -the bedlam that is newspaper office It is original witty -shrewdlv observed: well-written well-acted well-done' all round '-That the network gramme planners should bur? it in the closedown slot is little short of a particularly when our own miserable home-grown so-called sitcoms are allowed to drip away at peak time night after night British televirion has never got the newspaper business right- There was the shirt-sleeved 1 cliche of Deadline -Midnight the teen marazine fantasy of Forget Me Not- the brave hut off-beam urgency of The Standard They all failed because the programme makers succumbed to the EDWARD ASNER delusion that news offices are intrinsic! exciting' and their inhabitants invariably larger than life Lou Grant succeeds because although it is set in a newspaper office it have to be The little dramas the rivalries the petty bitchiness the burgeoning romances could all just as easily happen and probably in building societies and insurance offices The characters the writing and the direction make the series The newspaper fills in the background The opening sequence sets the tone Irreverent montage of the stages of newspaper production A tree falls a roll of newsprint goes on to the machine the presses roll a paper drops and is promptly- shoved into the bottom of a budgie's cage Lou played by Edward Asner is probably the most unprepossessing hero since Cannon a burly balding jug -eared loud-mouthed egotist of a city editor (we call them news editors and not like that at all) Last week he was trying -to score some cheap points off the bright and trendy lady editor of the paper glossy Today which he deliberately and persistently called the page Tonight he sends girl 'reporter to investigate an American Nazi organisation By Celia Brayfield A RATHER indifferent night' on the town gave birth to new play from ATV Tho Bass- Player And The Blonde The idea for the play- the three charting the stormy passage of- a May-September romance between an ageing no-hope jazzman and ambit-' ious young girl came to the producer 7 director Dennis Vance when he dropped in on one dT his favourite London nightclubs after a visit to the theatre Jaded "When I went to the club a four-piece band was playing young men and one old enough to be their says Vance He was Jaded world-weary and took no interest in what was going on around him until a blonde stepped up The older man as bass player to life the EDWARD WOODWARD moment the girl began to sing She was terrible but he cov-evered fra: her in a remarkably clever way and one hardly realised just how bad she was because of him Afterwards they went off together help wondering about somehow they caught my imagination What was a musician of his age doing in an outfit like this? Who was the girl? And what was their Vance handed the idea over to a team of writers one -of whom produced the original 90-minute and its success ensured that the stonr would be continued in this 'trilogy Edward Woodward plays the bass player a part which gives him a rare opportunity to shed the grim Oallan-esque personality which has been his TV trademark since that success a Joy to play a part like he says are so many facets to it a fascinating character to play delightful but a 'born loser Ill-matched singing talents can also be heard accompanying the music for the series The Jane adventures of the ill-matched couple will be a departure since her TV appearances to date have mostly been in non-singing roles ELEANOR SUMMERFIELD Radio 4 030 London busy year THE London Philharmonic Orchestra will make a 14-con-cert tour of Germany and Austria next summer on top of a 100-concert programme they -will play in Britain writes Michael Owen When LPO managing direo-tor Eric Bravlngton announ- ced next season's plans in -London today he said the current season had ended with a loss of £3000 on a turnover of £1250000 and had played to 82 per cent capacity audiences at the Festival Hall Rocking with Prank Zappa A GIANT rock concert is to be held in the grounds of Knebworth House Hertfordshire (writes James Johnson! FYank Zappa Petra: Gabriel and the bistre American group The Tubes are ex- -pected to attract 100000 fans on September 9 CAPITAL RADIO 104m (1546 kHz) VHF 05 0 All programmes art (8) I jfl Dave Cash 30 Peter 6jJ Young 74) London Today Adrian Love 90 Nicky Horne 110 Mike Allen 20 Duncan Johnson RADIO LONDON 206m (1457 kHz) VHF I4' 2 0 206 Showcase Home Run 70 But Seriously Though 730 Black Londoners 830 All That Jazz Late Night LondoQ 120-close As Radio 2 261m (1151 kHz) VHF 97-3 All programmes srs (S) LBC Reports xJ George Gale 40 LBO Reports SB After Eight 90 Night Extra ey JANE WYMARK saamt to havo dona hi homawerk thoroughly and pursues truthful answers nka a aobar-minded tamar It would be interesting to hear him in The New Quiz (Radio 4 1030) where the entertainment i often derived from inspired guesses or crossing awordo with tha auestionmaatar Barry Norman RB HIGHLIGHTS: Bom programme fall so neatly Into th reliable "category that thay fall to thaw deserve outstanding In this honourabl company is Tn World Tonisht (Radio 4 Mondavs to Friday trS'buV'alwivB Douglas Stuart who tonds to Spaak in Capital Lattarp but alwaya loway (S) 1145 News 1150 Schubert Song(S) RADIO 4 330m (008 kHz) "I womanle I'xu With Mother News 35 Jane Eyre 44) News 45 Pick of the Bunch 4 35 Story Time 50 PM Reports Serendipity News Many A Blip 70 New The Archers Time For Verse 730 Proma 78 (8) as Radio 3 followed by an Interlude 845 Off With His Head! Kaleidoscope 050 Weather 100 The World Tonight: News 1030 The News Quiz (8) 110 A Book at Bedtlme 1115 The Financial World Tonight 1130 News Weather report and forecast VHI Hoi HF OS'S ur 245 Bteptoe Saga (aeries) 1 1 2 Edomonton "78 with Terry Wogan 120 Midnight Newsroom Weather: Motoring Information RADIO 404m (047 kHz) VHF 01 3 a Symphonies From the North (S) Concert: Blomdahi Brustad 445 Rameau (S) 515 Jazz Today (S) 545 Homeward Bound 05 News 010 Homeward Bound (cont) 630 Lifelines Proms '78 (S) Part 1: Britten Mozart 035 The Other Europeans (series) 355 Proms "78 (S) Part 2: Holloway Haydn The Re- emergence of the Counter-Tenor 1025 Alfred Brenqel IDIO 1 247m (1214 kHz! Tony Blackburn 431 Paul Gambaccinl 730 ports Desk IB 2 John Peel '-S) 120 As Radio 2 tADIO 2 i 1500m (200 kHz) VHF 00'1 Qf I David Hamilton (S) 20J 43o IValk Sports -Desk 450 -fill Prince (S) Common- -realth Games Sports Desk few Polk (S) 7J0 -Sport Desk 733 On the -bird Beat (S) Gilbert rnd Sullivan At Large (8) 02 Tour Souvenirs (8) -155 Commonwealth' Game Sports' Desk: Three In I Row (aeries) The (S) Plano recital 1035 Unity: The Life ana Death of a Theatre 1125 Robin Hoi- a i4 iim I a.