British TV through Moscow eyes

THE question I have been asked more than any other during the short time I have been in Britain is: what are the differences between Russian and British television?

I have not seen enough to give a balanced answer, but generally what surprises me is how similar they are.

In Britain you have programmes about serious subjects – what we would call social-political subjects – so do we.

You have dramas: so do we. You have quizzes: so do we. You have spectacular shows: so do we.

You have a programme called The Army Game, which laughs at Army life: we have humorous films in which army characters fall into comic situations.

Now I won’t say they are quite the same as The Army Game, but I should like to have a script of one of the programmes so that we could show it in the USSR.

It was easy for me to understand The Army Game, for its characters are international. I have had more difficulty with other programmes because of the language problem.

But the programmes transmitted by Independent Television in your country are obviously acceptable to the public. And that is the thing that counts. Television must give the people what they want.

At the same time, the tastes of the minorities must be catered for, and this we attempt to do in Russia.

In Russia we have no organisations to give us “ratings” for different programmes. So how do we find out what the people do want? We find out in a variety ways. Firstly, if a programme is liked very much – or is not liked very much – viewers telephone us as soon as the programme is finished, and sometimes in the middle. We also receive between 3,000 and 4,000 letters a month.

But we do not rely on views which are sent in: we hold regular viewers’ conferences at which both past and forthcoming programmes are discussed, and in addition we have a Council of Viewers, composed of about 100 people.

On this council we have factory workers and professors, doctors and housewives, all sorts of people. When they meet twice a month they give their views of the programmes as well as the opinions of people they know and work with. In this way, it is easy for the central studios in Moscow to get the opinions of a good cross-section viewers.

From my observations, one thing seems it is safe to say that no country has yet produced a programme which has satisfied everyone.

Which brings me to another question I have been asked: do you have television critics in the Soviet Union? This question was asked with feeling. My answer is: “Yes, indeed, we have critics, lots and lots of them; and they can be very stringent in their criticism.”

In the Soviet Union, television is looked on as a baby that is growing up and needs an occasional reprimand.

The critics demand good television. But I what is good television? That is the most difficult question to answer, but I would say this: whatever the type of programme, the aim must always be to keep the quality high. It seems to me that Granada is doing this, for I was particularly impressed by the way they handled coverage of the Trades Union Congress meeting. This was a model of how such a programme should be covered.

I have also seen rehearsals for a television version of Dickens’ “Old Curiosity Shop” (The Small Servant), and, as a former actor, I was struck by the high level of this production. This would be a popular play in Russia.

My visit has really been to study technical methods, and in some ways you are ahead of us, notably in the videotape field, in which programmes are transcribed into electrical impulses and recorded on tape.

The Granada Convertor was also most impressive, for it solves the problem of “translating” the British line system into the different systems used by other countries.

My colleagues and I were also interested in the “Travelling Eye” Outside Broadcast Units and other production methods.

However, we are ahead of Britain in the colour television field. Already, we are transmitting one and a half hours of colour television a week. Of course, the programmes can be picked up in colour only on special sets, but they can be received in black and white on normal sets. From the great interest shown in colour work, it is obvious that colour television is going to be developed quickly, but I do not think that it will ever entirely replace black and white, any more than colour has ever done in the cinema.

We also have two other black and white channels, both, of course, run by the State. There are 4,000,000 television sets in the Soviet Union, and this, considering the large population, is a small percentage. We are rapidly increasing production of sets, and this year we shall have made another million.

My visit has been short and, of necessity, much confined to technical matters, but it has emphasised how much television can be a common language.

Language barriers can be broken, but there have also been certain technical barriers. Now these, too, are falling to inventions such as the Granada Convertor. This sort of machine can play a great part in making television truly international.