Leicester Chronicle from Leicester, Leicestershire, England • 21

ook out for these tv plays rll, strikes, bickering, foot- oliganism these ingredients of a season of plays, City Firsts to levlsed from the I rama Department at 8.8. C. Pebble Mill in Birmingham. that the subjects It of our daily lives. gutting too much time when viewers tAcerpts from the in the "Second City (which runs from '8 to December 16 on on BBC 2) ini tl that the plays lii I remely well by an knows from first we Ihe part of the the character of herc his play is set.

her. author of the play to he it November 4 said. story in Cornwall. loirn and still live. strike in a small imolves only lovees.

But the es are the same as affect workers the country. I it the way my ow, would react in 'lilt and still insular monotony, but I kers all over the I itlemtify with their November Pickard. and Fred Astaire, darlings of the thirties musicals. each of these plays is spiced with a delicious and earthy humour that slices the violence and cruelty neatly down to size, and affords the viewer an opportunity to relieve the undoubted tension by a good belly laugh. My favourite at this limited viewing was 'Too hot to handle" (Monday.

December 2). This play by Jim Ilawkins (a new writer) concerns a wife who accidentally discovers pornographic pictures on the top of her husband's wardrobe. tier comfortable suburban complacency is totally shattered yet showing immense initiative she finds an inventive if somewhat desperate remedy. When her husband arrives home she has festooned the dining room with nude pictures "reproductions" she calls them. When he is so shaken that he drops his dinner plate and splashes a photograph, she remarks gaily, "Oh dear, now you've slopped sauce vinaigrette all over her Such conversational gems make a play memorable.

And with this series which is written. directed and acted by new personalities, "Second City Firsts" have limitless opportunities to bring spontaneous. sparkling new talent to television drama. Transmissions are as follows on BBC 2: November 4. by John Fletcher.

November 11. Sunday by Edwin Pearce. November IS. Fight for Shelton by Peter Cheeseman. 25.

-Squire by "fom December 2. "Too hot to Ilandle by Jim Hawkins. December 9. "Match of the Day by Neville Smith (repeat). December 16.

The Fest ner intense Poacher by lar odgment. For ricester Magic Circle Sir Julian Cup, Mallinson, pictured with 'trailer (president). 4 4 ti opi lr A i S. 4 vol 4 1 1, 4 A 4 A 1. -1 3 i' A 1 I- II 0 i i N.

40' 1 40, A 4 0 5:4... 41 I. I 2, 'fir it iii 4 i li A or old musicals? IF I WERE offered the choice of seeing an Andy Warhol film (described as a comedy) about a day in the life of a hopeless heroin addict, and the old song and dance epic. "Footlight I would choose the thirties spectacle. Yet Warhol's "TRASH" (cert.

X), at the Cameo Classic next week, has been rated as being as "escapist" as "Footlight (Or, perhaps, any other production of the boom days of musicals). 'Trash" reflects the times in which it was made, which is exactly what those old Tin Pan Alley films do. "Trash" reflects modern times, when sophistication is mostly thinly disguised apathy. The market for films of nudity, sex, horror and perversion, like permissiveness generally. could be the product of apathy Those who think that films like "Trash" call for the opposite attitude may regard the Warhol "comedy" as a boil on the face of contemporary American culture.

Other filmgoers. tired of the rantings of moral vigilantes, may excuse it as a one-man war on drugs. Many more people, who are neither culture conscious nor unduly concerned about morality will see the picture because it was banned in this country for two years. has a reluctant certificate and they are curious. They could be disappointed to learn that the film is counterrevolutionary at heart, with the intention of preserving the status quo.

While "Trash" was still without a certificate, a big fuss was made about the inconsistences of censorship which permitted the showing of a picture as nastily violent as "Straw Dogs" and withheld the Warhol work. St. John-Stevas found the film repellent, but not pornographic. And members of the House of Lords pontificated. Said Lord Raglan.

"The film has the ring of immense and dreary truth about the kind of life that drifters lead in any big city I cannot see any harm coming from its release and it might do good." Said Viscount Norwich: "In a curious way. it seems to me to be an extremely moral film." Strongest argument for the film's okayness according to a woman writer, was its demonstration that drugs cause sexual impotence. .1 would not mind if my mum saw it." said David Bailey. But does mum want to see it. does she need to see it Do younger People need to see it to be "turned off" by what Viscount Norwich said was "an utterly true picture of a particular way of life in all its sordidness and hopelessness?" It may he that there is more to he said in favour of "Trash" than can be said for worth ertrino II ft 6....

I Or 1 I "I' 3 A Twiggy's musical, "The Boy sent the back-stage films. The genuine article collie! Ilf Asie 0 11 doge Dick PoweU, who turned from musicals to tough crime films. Remember, LEICESTER shops are well stocked with fireworks, and 1 was delighted to see that "parachute lights" were still available a few days ago. This particular variety is top of the cracker pops for me. It used to cost ls.

Present price, 47p! Fireworks are still dangerous if carelessly handled, but a number of restrictions. voluntarily agreed by the industry. are now operating. Members of the industry volunteered to: Limit the size of rockets sold over the counter to 4oz. calibre: abandon the sale of thunder flashes.

Stop making ground torpedo type fireworks. Stop discharging lire. works which have an able flight. Advise retailers not to sell bangers more than one month before November 5, Reduce the explosive content in bangers to 30 grains of gunpowder from 40 grains. See that fireworks to be held in the hand could be quickly identified in the dark by having a wooden or plastic handle, ad that this type of firework should be limited to giving colour effect rather than a spray or shower; Arrange for all )ther fireworks.

with the exception of jumping crackers and Catherine heels. to be clearly labelled not to be held in the Agree to cap all hangers or put them in boxes or closed containers. Print more specific safe handling instructions on all rockets and Homan candles for sale to the public in 1974. In 1975 jumping crackers will no longer be sold. November 5 is traditionally associated with Guy Fawkes and his conspiracy to blow up the of Parliament in 1605 but the custom of a firefestival at the beginning of November goes back to Celtic times.

Chinese crackers were probably the first fireworks to be made. about 2.000 years ago, and are still used to celebrate weddings. births, religious festivals and to scare away evil spirits. The first firework may have been made accidentally when saltpetre nitrate of potash. commonly used at that time as a substitute for salt fell into the charcoal embers of a cooking lire.

Experiments with the effects produced would perhaps hate been followed by packing the mixtuie into a bamboo tube and igniting it. Even today bamboo tubes are used in the Far East for some fireworks Tlw earliest European firemorks in the fourth century. probably brought back from the East by Crusaders, and they rapidly became a form of international entertainmtnt. Shakespeare mentions them and Queen Elifabeth I enjoyed firework displays. I which opens at ABC-1 On Sunday.

The role played by Sylvia Kristel is that of "a girl who has to experience every kind of sexual deviation in order to become the total What a state to he in! The picture is the first to lw directed by Just Jaeckin, who wanted to make "an erotic film of quality, with everything beautiful and suggeited." You are promised that as well as being daring. the picture is magnifict fitly and roll beautiful people. The picture puts the question does Emmanuelle need to indulge in her extravagant antics to achieve fulfilment? The symbol used to advertise the production is a partially peeled apple, with the peel metamorphosed into a snake. and the exposed apple rupresented as a curvy behind. Its all very fruity no doubt and as frivolous in its own way as "Footlight I still plump for the latter kind of girlie film.

with the whirling dreamed up by Busby Berkeley. It may be that with the great success of "That's a lavish collage of MGM musicals, the tuneful escapism of the thirties. shown fragmentarily on television, could be revived in the cinema. These old musicals are American. and our cinemas have a quota problem.

Sexy. "common market" films from the Continent qualify as British" quota, and help to eke out supply of he too-meagre home-produced TIME OFF Even so, 1 hope Busby Berkeley may be one answer to a surfeit of and sex. These tuneful oldies could make serviceable second features. Young cinernagoers are. nostalgic about llollywood.

Most of them could do without "Trash' star Holly Woodlawn. "Emmanuelle" and all but three and a half minutes of "Trash" are available because we are more sensible about censorship than we used to be. But relaxation of strictures does nothing to enhance the cinema's appeal as entertainment. A nostalgic dip into the film vaults might. 11 is odd that the younger generation of filmgoers is "nostalgic" about a form of entertainment which flourished and they were born.

And its a happy thought that its eevival might coax Mulls and Dads back to the cinema, well as amusing their progeny. attractions. That is why we get so many of them. A Leicester from SUNDAY! THE PASSIONATE DESIRES OF A WOMAN JEFFREY KRUGER womints SEX AND THE LONELY WOMAN EASTMAN COLOUR SERGIO REGULES SUSANNA GROSSEN BLASTING OPEN The Mob's Biggest Racket! the Wavle el The Godfather and fl The Misch Pryers 'LI a I WM, kIIUGIi Is BRODERICK CHAWFORO r) culaci 1 4 5 upt.triup 1 7... CRIME SYNCIICArE 'I rti MITA MOORE MI II 451 THE LEICESTER CHRONICLE, NOVEMBER 1, 1974 21.