SIR,—My question to Pharos remains unanswered, so may I try
again'? 'Who is to decide what is better for the public other than their own choice?' In case Pharos is in an answering mood, here is a second question : Did he see any of the five programmes before he commented on them last week? I guess not—just as only someone who had not read 'A Spectator's Notebook' would dismiss it as a 'snippet feature.' It Can Happen Tomorrow is a serious attempt to keep teenagers in touch with science. 1 Hear, 1 See is an ente• aining and coherent illustra- tion of phonetics. I share the dislike of Pharos for programmes which show 'people being humiliated, physically or mentally, for the benefit of viewers.' There is no opportunity for this in either Dotto or Keep it in the Family. So?—Yours faithfully, [Pharos writes: '(1) I answered this last week, apparently without success; the public do not have "their own choice": they can choose only, between two sets of programmes. (2) I used "snippet" in no derogatory sense--not, that is, to Mr. Irwin or his programmes, though their brevity might reason- ably be held against his employers. (3) Mr. Irwin may not feel that it humiliates people to have their ignorance exposed to the public, and certainly many of the contestants do not worry. But I share the Manchester Guardian critic's views on Mr. Irwin's Keep it in the Family: "This game is a retrogression from the silliest of give-away shows yet seen . . . the dumb distorted faces of the challengers are painful to see." '—Editor, Spectator.]
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