[pressgang] Episode 11: Monday, Tuesday

[Vince Deehan]

PRESS GANG

Series 1

Episode 11 - Monday, Tuesday

Watched Friday 8/4/22

On Friday morning, I watched the penultimate episode of series 1. MONDAY,
TUESDAY.

It’s one of the best episodes of the first series and stands out as one of
the best from the whole five series.

The story concerns a boy called David Jefford who wants to be a writer with
the Junior Gazette. He is currently in the graphics team, but he is not
happy there. He basically goes on to blackmail Lynda into giving him a job
on the writing team by writing a letter to the adult paper that Matt Kerr
runs, listing all the slightly dodgy homework copying and truanting that is
going on in the Junior Gazette.

The actor who plays David, has a most peculiar hairstyle which seems at
least 10 years out of date. He looks like he's from the 1970s, though this
was filmed in 1988. I strongly suspect the actor playing David, called
Alexander Crockatt, was a private school boy in real life. One thing I have
noticed in the past, is that private school boys can sometimes have
bizarrely old fashioned hairstyles that are wildly out of date from the
haircuts you’d see on state educated boys. I used to go to school in Harrow
in London at a state school, but we were not that far from a very famous
private boys school called Harrow School. There was a second hand record
shop in Harrow town centre that the private school boys would visit, and
I’d heard that many of them would be hunting down copies of old 1970s rock
bands like Genesis etc..Which just added to my impression that the private
school boys were oddly out of step with modern times.

One thing that struck me about the actor playing David, is he is extremely
wooden and seems to have the same scowly impression on his face for most of
his scenes. His acting skills seem vastly inferior to the highly talented
actors in the main cast. I notice on IMDB that he had a handful of credits
before Press Gang, but none after and none at all between his appearance

in this episode and his quite startling return in the final episode. I
reckon he must have totally lost interest in acting between this episode
and series 5, and was probably not a working actor at all when he was
called up out of the blue for the final episode. My guess he was at
University

when he was called up for the series 5 finale. He probably thought he’d
never act again, but this was one offer that would be crazy to refuse. He
still has the same odd hair in 1993, which was handy for continuity!

He certainly looks the part of a rich kid and he is certainly very moody
and sullen, so in that sense, he actually does quite a good job playing the
character of David.


I enjoyed the storyline where Colin enlists Spike to ask out his potential
new girlfriend, Ethel Stuttgart. Wonderful name! The actress who plays her
is called Susie Lee Hayward. She gives a very lively and fun performance.
She makes a big impression with just a few lines and some really great
expressions on her face. A very talented actor, although her

IMDB credits only list three more roles after Press Gang.

Nice scene with Mr Sullivan. Nick Stringer, who plays him, has a wonderful
way of speaking and acting. Very playful, warm and witty. He gives Lynda
some very good advice when he says to her, “Don’t categorise people.”

Just been rewatching the scene between David and Lynda in the school
playground. David thinks he now has a real chance of joining the writing
team and becomes very animated. Perhaps I was too harsh earlier about what
seemed like wooden acting. His character, as we are starting to learn, is
deeply troubled and unhappy.

The topic of suicide is very heavy stuff and not what you would expect in a
drama aimed at children. I can’t imagine they would do that now, with a
show aimed at school children.

It’s totally understandable that Lynda feels partly responsible as you
could easily argue that her comments to David in their final encounter,
probably did tip him over the edge.

I do like the scene with Matt Kerr who delivers some hard truths while at
the same time trying to absolve Lynda of feeling it was her fault. His
advice to Lynda is very good, “Be careful what you say to people. It may be
the last thing they hear.”

I’d forgotten that Lynda resigns at the end of the episode. I can’t recall
what happens in the next episode, but I wonder if this was Steven Moffat
writing an ending that might wrap the show up in case it got cancelled
before a series 2 was made?

It’s a classic episode in my opinion, though not one I watched a lot as it
is rather depressing.

Thanks for reading. Only one more episode of series 1 to go.

Vince

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU_uRBl5gLE&t=1112s
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