[pressgang] Episode 11: Monday, Tuesday

[Vince Deehan]

Claire, I forgot to add the following:

I also address all work emails to groups of colleagues, with 'Dear all'. I
didn't get this from Press
Gang though.

I have noticed over the years, that other colleagues also started adopting
this phrase. It's a
fairly standard phrase, but I never noticed many others at work using it
until I started using it.

Vince


On Sun, Apr 10, 2022 at 4:01 PM Claire Douglas <dipskitcomedy at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Vince!
>
> I really enjoyed reading that. Trivia about me: I address all work emails
> (to more than one person) with 'Dear all', which I copied from Lynda's
> farewell letter.
>
> Teen shows these days are much more graphic. Drugs, sex, suicide, sexual
> assault, etc. are all shown onscreen. 13 Reasons Why, for example.
>
> Cheers
>
> Claire
> On 10/04/2022 10:12 pm, Vince Deehan wrote:
>
> 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 least 10 years out of date.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 bizarrely old fashioned hairstyles that are wildly out of date from the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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