Television
Parnell's Circus
By PETER FORSTER Interlarded with this entertainment were seven minutes of commercials, the maximum permitted by the Independent Television Authority. These seven minutes raised, at the least, something over £53,000 for Associated Television Ltd., the con- tractors for London weekend television who produced the show, and may have raised con- siderably more, depending on divers scales and charges. Precisely how much the whole pro- duction cost to put on is not known,.but almost certainly not more than the money taken from the London area, some £15,000. A third of the show is occupied by Beat the Clock, which costs little more than £300-£400 per week, including prizes and averaging out the jackpot.
Mr. Val Parnell, managing director of ATV, has a famous, long-standing connection with the management and lessees of the London Palla- dium. His associates on the board of , ATV, Lew and Leslie Grade, control a large artists' agency and are responsible for many of the foreign stars who appear in Palladium shows: these are frequently brought over in package deals which also involve appearances on Val Parnell's Saturday Spectacular and (as with the Andrews Sisters) at the Talk of the Town Restaurant, run by Bernard Delfont, who is also a brother of Lew and Leslie Grade. The time-saving advantages when it conies to nego- tiating fees and costs must be obvious.
Television usually manages to accommodate an excerpt from whatever is the current show at the Palladium, and latterly a new use for 'the world's ace variety house' has been contrived by a commercial which plugs Mr. Parnell, the theatre, the Sunday show and the floor-cleaning product, Flash.
Never having held the view that criticism should deal solely with [esthetics, I mention these facts in order to emphasise that where the Palladium is concerned, the public are not the only ones who get their money's worth. I might add that in some departments of ATV there is said to be an economy drive newly under way in such matters as first-class rail fares and office staff. Perhaps this is the moment to express a sincere hope that the hard times will soon pass.
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