[pressgang] Episode 11: Monday, Tuesday

Sun Apr 10 16:39:25 BST 2022

:-)

On 11/04/2022 1:29 am, Vince Deehan wrote:
> 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     seems at least 10 years out of date.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     fashioned hairstyles that are wildly out of date from the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
>>     <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU_uRBl5gLE&t=1112s>
>>
>>
>>
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