[pressgang] Episode 9- Both Sides of the Paper

[Dipskit Comedy]

Hi Vince

Loved that review. I agree about the Phone Ranger - he’s awful. I see him as a parody (but a very close one) of those woeful radio blokes who try to be cool but are too old and very uncool.

I was very like Sarah at exam time too. Good student but still had those nightmares.

Colin and his exam kits is one of my favourite Colin schemes. Love the look on his face when Lynda takes the idea amd uses it for the paper.

Apparently Paul Reynolds was dating the actress who plays Kate.

Cheers
Claire

> On 15 Mar 2022, at 02:05, Vince Deehan <vince.deehan at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> PRESS GANG
> Series 1
> Episode 9 - Both Sides of the Paper
> Watched 14/03/22
> 
> At the risk of sounding like a broken record, as this episode began I was struck again by how unfamiliar it seemed to me. I have probably only ever seen this episode 2 or 3 times and certainly not for well over 20 years. The opening scene is filmed with what appears to be a fisheye lens, which distorts the image around the edges. It puts the viewer off balance quite effectively. I love the line from the teacher who says that pupils are always asking how much time they should spend studying. His answer is both hilarious and chilling.
> 
> I took school exams extremely seriously. I was definitely a swot and would often come near the top and sometimes even at the top of exams. Up until I started my A Levels at age 16, when my academic career took a mighty plunge due to overwhelming social anxiety and a catastrophic drop in self confidence. Subjects such as Maths, which had seemed almost stupidly easy till aged 16, suddenly got ridiculously hard and I just lost the will to even try my best. But I digress. 
> 
> I totally empathise with Sarah’s exam freak out. The sheer amount of information we had to learn for each subject was insane and I can honestly say, revising for school exams was highly stressful for me and seemed like an impossible task that you could never fully prepare for. 
> 
> Realising I was probably gay in my teens, shook me so badly off-centre that I never was able to maintain my excellent academic results after my O Levels at aged 16. I hope that isn’t a fate that befalls queer teens in 2022, though I strongly suspect it does for some.
> 
> The Phone Ranger character. Surely the most irritating character ever in Press Gang. Almost painfully unfunny. What was Steven Moffat thinking? I notice that in the credits the character is mistakenly called The Phone Banger. The actor who plays him, Patrick Barlow, used to be in a comedy double act with the actor Jim Broadbent, called The National Theatre of Brent. Bit of trivia for you there.
> 
> Jim Broadbent went on to become a highly successful film actor. Patrick Barlow went on to have enormous success with his play adaptation of the novel THE 39 STEPS. I saw this play twice, once in London and once in Boston. It was absolutely hilarious and tremendous fun - the exact opposite of The Phone Ranger!
> 
> I love the scene where Colin tries to sell Sarah his Exam Kit, but doesn’t want to embarrass her by trying to sell it to her for anything less than the regular price. Made me laugh out loud. A running gag from this point on, is that Colin is constantly upping the price whilst maintaining that he is offering it at a bargain price. Paul Reynolds really is a gem of an actor. 
> 
> The job offer that The Phone Ranger offers to Lynda really doesn’t sound like it’s worth ditching school for. He does seem to be suggesting she leave before taking her exams, if I understood correctly. She seems initially quite keen, though by the episode's end she has changed her mind - quite wisely.
> 
> This makes me wonder how old Lynda and the gang are. Judging by the fact the rest of the school wears a school uniform, I assume that Lynda and co are in the final year of the Sixth Form. This is the year we take our final school exams in the U.K, the A Levels. So this suggests Lynda is 17/18 years old. Depending on what month you were born in, some pupils taking their A Levels could have turned 18 years old the previous September or some could be like me and turned 18 much later in the year all the way to the following August. I turned 18 right at the time I was taking my A Levels, or perhaps just a week two after. 
> 
> Nice appearance by the minor character Kate, in the school corridor, where Lynda ignores her. She appears again shortly after in a scene where Kenny and a gang of Gazette staff are discussing possible exam topics. Kate says, “The Chartists. They always come up.”
> I can’t imagine many other children’s drama would have mentioned something so highbrow.
> 
> I just had to look up the Chartists, as although the name rang a bell, I had no idea who or what they were. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartism
> 
> All in all, it’s an okay episode. Good but not a great one, for me anyway.
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Vince
> 
> https://youtu.be/W7pm-Ontxcc
> 
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