Television
Waugh and piss
Richard Ingrams
Try as we may we cannot escape very fat nowadays from the figures of Waugh, Pere et fl/s. Waugh the Younger is everywhere' You have only to open a paper or magazine to find an article if not by him, then about him. His industry and application are Linique among contemporary journalists. But meanwhile his father, Evelyn Waugh, 00' tinues to obsess us. His books go on selling in huge quantities and all the time biographical moles burrow away in th,e archives regularly throwing up new vor umes of diaries, letters, or occasional arti arti cles. If one was hoping for an explanation °,1, Waugh phenomenon from Ronaiu Harwood's A Sense of Loss (BBC-2) duced to celebrate the seventy-fift" anniversary of Evelyn Waugh's birth one was likely to be disappointed. The Programme plainly displeased the shade of the late novelist for yet again Brian Inglis Please note – spirit forces intervened to try to sabotage the BBC's efforts. Six cameras, was reported in the Daily Telegraph, broke down during the filming and the sound of mysterious table-knocking was heard on the tape when it was played through. Finally the taxi bringing the finished film to the Press preview failed to arrive. It was difficult to see what Harwood's aim was or what was meant by his rather pretentious title. He explained earnestly how the settings of Decline and Fall and Brideshead Revisited were based on Waugh's own observation. But any Idea that the prep school in Decline and Fall was a wicked figment was quickly dispelled not Only be the quotations from Waugh's own diaries but by the reminiscences of the headmaster's elderly god-daughter who, In an attempt to disprove the novelist's pn m) di view of his pupils, said that two 0 t them had once been seen taking off their Caps as the passed the Llandudno War Memorial to show their respect for the Fallen. It was a perfect Waugh moment. Asked to account for the novelist's problems Lady Mary Lygon said, again like a waugh character: 'He always wanted to be tall!' In contrast to Harwood, I myself, let me confess, have never found Decline and Fall Particularly funny, and the last time I read arideshead Revisited I was strongly reminded of Noel Coward. I enjoy, however, Put Out More nags and Pinfold, and the story of Waugh himself– a man battling to live his life in accordance with his religious beliefs, sincerely held, and in defiance of the twentieth-century and of his own doubt, despair and possibly insanity – I find very moving in the same way that 13r Johnson's lifelong struggle against his nature is moving. Any impression left by Harwood's posturing, and the rambling reminiscences of Waugh's friends, was Obliterated by the few striking shots of Waugh in person desperately trying to be Polite to John Freeman on Face to Face. This brave and gloomy man, vividly linipsed, seemed to have nothing whatever in common with the fellow Harwood was rabbning on about. There was more about Waugh on Word for Word (BBC-2) the infuriating new programme presided over by the ubiquitous Robert Robinson and a quite pretty girl With a lisp called Vicky Payne. This consists of artistic snippets like those 'What's Going Paragraphs in the Sunday papers' There is an attempt to drum up controversy out of the world of theatre books etc, but unless those responsible are prepared to treat that whole scene as a fairly good farce, We will get nothing but sycophancy of the usual Melvyn Bragg variety. I noticed the previous week that while a safe target, Richard Buckle, was attacked for his silly book on U and Non-U, Arnold Wesker s new Play which looked dreadfully dull and Pretentious was given a straightforward plug. The Russian writer, Vladimir Bukovsky, made an excellent impression on The Price of Freedom (BBC-2). The best dissidents, the ones who make the most trouble for the authorities, are those with no special political or religious axe to grind, but men who are bolshy and bloody-minded by nature. Usually such men are also jokers. It was significant that Bukovsky began his speech to camera with a joke. Brooding afterwards in my bath about whether I or any of my friends would ever by dissidents, I could think of only one who definitely would be if the circumstances arose, and that was Auberon Waugh. There you are. You keep coming back to them.
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