Talkback

Your comments on TV and radio

SHOCKING BREAK

The film on Prime TV on Saturday, September 29, was Philomena, based on a true story in Ireland last century. It was brilliantly acted, with Judi Dench and Steve Coogan.

It had advertisements, of course, but in the middle of a particularly poignant few minutes, it was a shock when Prime cut to a break. Shame on you, Prime – surely you could have waited until this scene finished? Janet Fursdon (Oxford)

SLICE OF “MANGERE”

I’m a long-time Diana Wichtel fan, so it’s disconcerting to be jolted into protest over her prim dismissal of the Mangere Vice pilot ( TV Review, October 13). Too many fart jokes and kicks in the nuts! Unfair. We found it funny, wonderfully un-PC, good natured and profoundly

Kiwi. The acting, as Wichtel said, was terrific, but so were the script and production – at least in the opinion of our household of elderly people and their teenage grandchildren. Sue McCauley (Dannevirke )

NOT TO BE

Please ask TVNZ when we’ll see more Upstart Crow – surely the funniest thing ever on television. Thanks. Neil Keating (Auckland)

Talkback responds: There was a Christmas special in the UK last year of Ben Elton’s Shakespearean comedy, and a third season screened in August, but bad news – both TVNZ and Sky say they have no plans to screen any new episodes. It is also not listed on Netflix or Lightbox.

LIVE AND LET LIVE

The opportunity to listen to a recording of an orchestral concert being broadcast while I am sitting comfortably at home in front of a cosy fire is something to be very thankful for. Of course, enjoying being present at a live concert is also a treat, but there are times during a wet and wild winter when I am very happy to have the choice.

But I have always been bemused by the terminology RNZ uses to describe broadcast concerts. To me, “live” means it’s taking place now, at this moment, in contrast to a concert recorded on some previous occasion.

But RNZ refers to all recorded concerts as “live”, based, I presume, on the understanding that it was live at the time of recording, no matter how long ago, and that it was in front of a live audience, in contrast to being recorded in a studio.

Isn’t it more logical to refer to all concerts that are not genuinely “live” as “recorded”, and keep “live” exclusively for the takingplace-right-now broadcast concerts? Carol Scott (Birkenhead, Auckland)