Editorial: Selwyn Toogood, quizmaster

Selwyn Toogood gave us simple pleasure in simpler times. On radio in the 1950s and television in the 1970s his travelling quiz shows were part of the fabric of New Zealand life. There were few in the years before television who did not turn on the radio in the early evening to hear his rich, booming bonhomie entice people of another small town to play "It's in the Bag."

These days the programmes would be criticised as promotional vehicles for home appliances, as they were. Selwyn Toogood could make a refrigerator sound like a trip to the moon. And if the contestant had taken the money, a nation would sigh in resignation.

They were times of controlled prosperity, when home appliances really were expensive yet almost everybody could afford to forego the money and hold out for the mystery prize.

The quizmasters played with their guests' dilemma, tempting and teasing them but finally respecting them. Exploitation was not a charge much heard in those days.

Some things, though, do not change. Then, perhaps even more than now, a celebrity in this country was not allowed to get too far above the crowd. Selwyn Toogood probably did not mind. He was a professional concentrating on his performance. In an industry where fame and ego can too easily cloud professional judgment, the true professional is glad of an audience that keeps his feet on the ground.

He was modest to a fault when he attributed the success of his programme to the format rather than himself, and he was a professional to the end, retiring in the interests of the programme when he felt he was no longer sharp enough to do it well.

We owe more than we usually acknowledge to those who put their faces and foibles before us and become our common acquaintances. They do more than entertain us. They are masters of ceremonies, characters in the national family, people we all know and talk about. Selwyn Toogood takes with him a little of us all.