TV interruptions
Sir: Doesn't Richard Ingrams (28 January) know that television is terrified of allowing anyone to speak for more than two minutes without interrupting? For those of us who did not have the opportunity like him to sit at Sir Isaiah Berlin's feet at Oxford, it was a wonderful chance to listen to him talk. It is a fact that all television producers feel that allowing anyone to speak without endless interruptions and questions almost amounts to the criminal. The interruptions on the Philosophers programme were an example of it at its worst. But why do producers in television not trust in the ability of a great philosopher to maintain the interest of an individual watching? While we are on the subject, there are millions of people who never get the opportunity even to see anything on television and these are all the people who work in service industries between the hours of 7 p.m. and midnight. Why cannot
some programmes be repeated after midnight for those of us who have had to spend our evenings working? The smugness of the television world is such that they believe that the only people who are interested are
those who want a report on the world in ten minutes and who are in their homes at 7 p.m. and go to bed at 11 p.m.
Perhaps your television critic and racing correspondent could combine in a livelier Ultc gight hour, but that would probably be too much for the dictators at Broadcasting House.
Michael White 13 Duke Street, London SW1
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