The Year London Blew Up: 1974 (C4)

RECENT terrorist events in the capital made this documentary a timely reminder that we've been here before.

When I say "we", I mean not so much the whole country, as London. During 1974 the city was subjected to 40 attacks from the Provisional IRA, trying to make life so unbearable that people would demand the withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland.

They bombed pubs and shops, assassinated individuals and carried out random machine gun attacks. The Guildford and Woolwich pub explosions and bombings of Harrods and Selfridges stores were among the high profile incidents, but there were many others. You could see why Central London was described as resembling a lawless frontier town.

Some 35 people died, with the year of terror culminating in a six-day siege with a middle-aged couple held hostage in their flat by four armed men. Miraculously, it ended without anyone being killed. I can't see that happening today where the inclination is to go in with guns blazing.

The programme offered an absorbing, seamless mix of archive footage, reconstruction and interviews. The four terrorists didn't offer their side of events, although they were released from prison under the Good Friday agreement. The Guildford Four, wrongly imprisoned for the first bombings, had to wait 14 years to be cleared.

Carol James was in The Horse and Groom pub in Guildford, celebrating her 19th birthday with her parents. It's funny the things that stick in your mind - she recalled that Kung Fu Fighting was playing on the jukebox when the bomb exploded. An understandably upset Carol, knocked unconscious in the blast, recalled simply: "I saw people being taken out and put in the ambulance. I saw too much."

Wendy Wilkins, a regular in another bombed pub, wondered how terrorists could commit such atrocities: "How can they just do that, see everybody and know they are going to kill people and devastate everybody? I can't get to grips with that".

Ross McWhirter's wife recalled how her husband was shot dead in front of her. He became a target after putting a £50,000 bounty on the heads of the bombers. They didn't take kindly to those who threatened them. If a victim vowed to carry on as normal, they'd often return for a second attack, so the police mounted a massive observation operation near likely targets.

Eventually it paid off. The terrorists were spotted by two policemen on foot ("we didn't even have a truncheon between us") and followed to 22b Balcombe Street, where they held John and Sheila Matthews hostage for six days as police and press waited outside.

They passed the time listening to Mrs Matthews' records. She was an Engelbert Humperdinck fan and one record put on the turntable was Please Release Me Let Me Go. It was a light moment in an otherwise deadly serious story.

The Importance Of Being Earnest, York Theatre Royal

THIS "trivial comedy for serious people" proves, in actor David Leonard's directorial debut, a well-staged show for those looking for a seriously witty night out.

The man doomed to be billed as the Theatre Royal's long-serving pantomime baddie could have played it safe with a straightforward reading of a familiar play. But he's brave enough to add a few theatrical flourishes and personal touches to make it his own, without performing major surgery on the piece.

He's helped enormously by Emma Donovan's wonderful designs and costumes. But Oscar Wilde's comedy is about wordplay as much as fabulous frocks, nice furniture and cucumber sandwiches. That can be a drawback, when there are so many well-known, amusing lines that a production can resemble a countdown of Wilde's 100 Greatest Epigrams. Happily, Leonard's cast, a pleasing mix of youth and experience, flesh out the characters while mouthing the unrelentingly witty lines.

Lady Bracknell is one of those classic roles that presents every actress with a problem, as the memory of the famous handbag line hangs over the proceedings. Kate Brown - following up her eccentric Judith Bliss in Hay Fever at the theatre - plays down the Gorgon and shows that this lady's not for turning with her stern demeanour and voice that says: "Don't mess with me".

Edward Bennett's footloose Algernon contrasts neatly with Christpher Naylor's grave looking John Worthing, while Lucy Chalkley's determined Gwendolin proves a chip off the Lady Bracknell block when faced with Isabella Calthorpe's prettily innocent Cecily.

* Runs until September 17. Tickets (01904) 623568.

Steve Pratt