I Bellany's Bird's Eye View ( S'I‘\’) 8.30—9pm.,'(irapple me (irape nuts.‘ Britain‘s best loved beard has taken to the air. In the first of a series ofthree programmes. the enthusiastic botanist gives us a new angle on the lives ol'Iiider duckson the Ythan estuary northol Aberdeen.
I Van OerValk ( s'rvw. 10pm. The Dutch detective gets a long awaited airing.
I Documentary ( BBCI ) 9.311. luzupm. To mark the 20th anniv ersary ofBritish troops being sent to l'lster the Beebare showing a trilogy of documantaries featuring families from the different sides involved in the conflict. Tonight they locus on Shane Paul ()‘Docherty . who the cognicenti of Irish politics will not be surprised to learn is from a ( ‘atholic background. Having grown up in a v cry pleasant middle class family Shane fell in with the IRA. here he gives his view ofN. Ireland whilst his parents try tocometo terms with his involvement with the
Prm os and his newfound belief that has lead him to renounce violence.
TUESDAY 8
I Dispatches. Empire of the Sun ( S‘I‘V) 10.354 1.20pm. Another chance tosee the Sov iet's massive build up of mirrors in space. which reflects their superiority over the West in the Solar energy field.
I Bebeza Tropical (c4) l.35--3.-l(lam. Scots born David Byrne talks about his love for Brazilian music.
WEDNESDAY 9
I Scandal (S'I‘V) 1035—1 1.35pm. Surely a historic television moment as David Frost exposes one of the world‘s most notorious fraudsters in this 1967 TV interview.
THURSDAY 10
I N.B. (S'I'\') 10.35 » 1 1 .05pm. The first programme from the Iidinburgh Festival gis es an appraisal of the forthcoming hinge and main attractions.
I The Naked RunnertS‘l‘V)
ll.50pm-~ 1.50am. In what sounds like it could be a film about the more gregarious members of a cricket crowd. Frank Sinatra finds himself in the unenv iable position of having to carry out an assassination attempt when he thought he was goingto Germany on business.
RADIO
Dave Lee Travis at Youth Action — contradiction in terms or simply another Government sponsored Radio One attempt to get the youth ofthis fine nation up off its collective behind and intosome gainful employment? You can decide for yourselfwhen the self-styled ‘1 fairy Monster' (seriously. . . )hostshis Saturday show live from the Youth Action '89 Exhibition (Radio One. July 29. 10am). Joined by the markedly more pulse-fingered Philip Sehofield. DLTwilI be alerting us to a veritable cornucopia of employment opportunities which involve music. sport. leisure and volunteer work. And Wimpy. And MacDonalds. Tell little sister.
Grandfather. meanwhile. should be informed about the latest instalment of Radio Four's excellent analysis ofthe British Film industry‘s long and chequered history. Brittania — The Film (Radio Four. July 29. 10.30am). This weekthe programme looks at the halycon daysof E'iling Studios and examines whetherthe company fulfilled its promise as the most quintessentially British ofinstitutions. Interviewed on the programme is producer David Pullman who describes the era of Passport 10 Pimli'co and The Lady/tillers as ‘the most cohesively creative and vigorous period in British movies‘ and goes on to draw a direct
analogy between the cosy familiarity of the Ealing ethic and the thinking behind the 1951 Festival OfBritain . . .‘kindly. philanthropic. whimsical. optimistic. middlebrow. . .' Also interviewed on the programme will be scriptwriter T. EB. Clarke whose quirkily inventive and witty screenplays particularly informed the Ealing spirit. Played against this will be the more adroitly satiric and sometime malicious comedies of Robert Hamerand Scotland's own Alexander Mackendriek. in the process discovering that these apparently benign stories display the fiercest struggle between Britain‘s oldest foes. The Lion (authoritarianism) and The Unicorn (rebellion).
Another famed British rabble-rouser. this time ofthe literary variety. was Ford Madox Ford; novelist. biographer. poet and as of this week. a stiff of fifty years standing. To mark the occasion Radio Three will be presenting a tribute tothe hyper-prolific scribbler in the shape of It WasThe Nightingale (July 31 . 7.05pm). Author of 83 books. Ford is best remembered for his World War ()ne tetralogy Paradies End and for his satiric Ilit’fslt’rlt'l’fk The Good Soldier. It is. however. from his autobiography that the most wickedly funny of Ford‘s observations come and Neville Jason will be dispensing some classic anecdotes on the programme. most notably the one about the night Joyce and Proust spent discussing gastric ailments because neither had read the other's work.
What these literary mammoths would have made ofJohn Wayne and Ilis Belly is open to debate. You can make yourown mind up when the said scatalogical show appears in Radio Four's Thirty Minute Theatre series (August 1.3.0me). Lost for words. I‘m afraid I shall have to turn you over to the Press release for further info— ‘A young film student in New York dreams he is being haunted by the star and his radioactive stomach. He hates the Wayne legacy and. as a Vietnamese. hates his racism. He enjoys the irony that the pro-nuclear Wayne contracted cancer from a radioactive film location but now the spectre of the cowboy is eomingto haunt him at the restaurant where he works.‘ Sin. you might say.
On a more sombre note. it is now exactly twenty years since the troops were sent into Northern Ireland to. debatedly. keep the peace. Radio Four‘s Ilolding The Ring (August 3. 8. 15pm) is the soldier‘s viewof the campaign. It is not a history but an account of what officers and NCOs have felt in and out ofuniform since August 16. 1969. when the Army moved in to Ulster. The presenter is Major General Sir Jeremy Moore. who opens the hour long programme with this comment ‘As a soldier to have to walk the streets ofa British city with a loaded gun in your hand is outrageous. and yet this is what has been normal in Northern Ireland over the past twenty years.' Interviewer and compiler Charles Allen has drawn on the experiences of more than forty interviews in putting the programme together. None of the speakers are identified but theyall eome from the Bomb Squad and Ulster Defence Regiment with the emphasis very much on the front-line soldier rather than the senior military figures.
One corporal claims ‘Wc were murderers and all we'd actuallly done was our job. What makes women dress in man's clothes? What makes someone shoot from a moving car at you? Are you supposed to let these things happen? You‘ve got a rifle in your hand. you‘re there to defend life. someone‘s shooting at you. you fire back. someone gets hurt. In this case someone got killed.‘ Looking at such quotes there seems to be worrying evidence that Holding The Ring will be something of a Boys Own rewrite ofIrish affairs. with the Brits as virgin-white victims of power-crazed natives. Listen with caution. (Allan Brown)
SPORT
I Sport Is listed as mm by sport. thenby day. then by event.
Sunday30
I Edinburgh/Lothian Trophy Balbardie Park. Bathgate. West Lothian. 10am—5pm. Free.
Saturday 5—Sunday 6
I Scottish Championships Craigholme School playing fields. Drumbreck Road. Glasgow. 10am—5pm.
BOWLING Thursday Maturday 5
I Scottish National Championships Three clubs host this tournament. these being Mount Florida. Queen‘s Park and Wellcroft, all located in the Queen's Park area of Glasgow. Each day‘s play beginsat 9.30am and the admission price is £1. Six titles are up for grabs: Triples. Pairs. two Fours. Singles and Junior Singles. Competitors will have already negotiated their own club and district championships. which explains the absence of Willie Wood, Hugh Duff and some of the other bigger names.
POINT T0 PN
Loch Lomond ’89 Orienteering Festival, Sunday 30—Saturday 5. With the World Championship, at Skovde, in Sweden, due to take place in the middle of August, this six-day event might we" lack a few of the bigger names but nonetheless will not be short on quality. Initiated in 1979, and taking place every second year around various centres — in 1987, it was the Highlands, in ’85, Tayside - this year’s festival at Loch Lomond is expected to attract at least 3500 competitors from over 20 countries. Typically, the Scandinavian countries will be out in force, with Sweden sending 284 runners, Norway 79 and Finland 17. In addition, there will be 155 Swiss, 21 Canadians, 39 West Germans, 22 Americans and 111 from Eire. Not all will be competing in the major age categories, of which there are 13 for both men and women, but obviously the interest will focus on the 21 Elite classes. Unfortunately, Steve Hale, the leading male in the Scottish contingent and currently the British champion, might not be available, but there is every chance that Jonathan Musgrave will take part in one or two of the races simply because of his personal involvement in the organisation of one of the courses. Like most of the top British orienteers, Musgrave is obliged to tie in an extensive training programme with the need to earn a living, though by providing a mapping service he is sometimes able to bring the two together. However, without a greater
ARCHERY
Saturday 29
HALL WESTERN UNION
I Orumpeliier v West of Scotland Langloan. Coatbridge. 1.15pm.
I Kelbume V Ayr Whitehaugh, Paisley, 1.15pm.
I Poloc v Uddingston Shawholm. Pollockshaws. Glasgow. 1.15pm.
I Greenock v Clydesdale Glenpark. Brisbane Street. Greenock. 1.15pm.
I Kilmamock v Ferguslie Kirkstyle. Kilmarnock. 1.15pm.
RYDEN EAST LEAGUE
I Cuparv Royal High Duffas Park. Cupar. 1.30pm.
I Stenhousemuirv Freuchie The Tryst. Larbert 1.30pm.
I Itirkcaldy v Grange Bennochy. Kirkcaldy. 1.30pm.
I Edinburgh Acads v Watsonians Raeburn Place. Stockbridge. Edinburgh. 1.30pm. I Heriots V Carlton Goldenaere. Inverleith Row. Edinburgh. 1.30pm.
STODOART COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP
I West Lothian v Aberdeenshire Boghall. Linlithgow. 1pm.
I Stirling County v Perthshire Williamfield. Stirling. 1pm.
.‘gxx‘
‘ \ ?" A «‘3‘
-. . f‘“.w c financial commit
ment from both public and private sources, it is hard to believe that Britain can rise any higher in the world rankings, especially with the Eastern bloc now beginning to establish itself on the scene. Remarkably, the enthusiasm and determination of the country's top orienteers means that Britain currently occupies a place amongst the top 6 or 7 nations, having left the likes of Canada and West Germany behind to join the Scandanavians, the Eastern bloc and Switzerland.
Like the Tour de France, competitors will essentially carry theirtimes from one race to the next, though the two worst of the six will be eliminated. Each course will involve a considerable amount of wooded terrain, though this should not exclude spectators from enjoying certain sections. Admittedly, the sport does not lend itself especially well to spectating, but then this might provide all the more reason for those who are remotely interested to pick up a map and compass and think seriously about participating in a future competition. (Mike Wilson)
38 The List 28 July — 10 August 1989