[pressgang] pressgang Digest, Vol 230, Issue 28

Tue Feb 22 00:10:36 GMT 2022

Hi everyone,
I'm totally loving these forensic re-watches (because nothing succeeds like excess :-) and am so glad to hear I'm not the only one who spent ill-advised amounts of time as a child trying to pause VHSs to see what posters said, or who was listening to what cassettes...
In answer to the question about the birth of the internet: back in 1989 Tim Berners-Lee wrote a proposal for linking information across different computers that kicked off what became the internet we now all know and sometimes love. 
At the time, Berners-Lee was working at CERN in Geneva. I was working in Geneva in 2019 and CERN hosted a big anniversary event; there was a lot of media coverage as well. 
One amusing thing I remember reading in the media was that, as is so often the way of these things, when Berners-Lee wrote his initial proposal (which you can access from the link above), his boss' response was apparently something along the lines of 'your proposal needs more work, but it's not a bad idea'. :-)
Cheers,Michelle-- Michelle Imison BA (Hons) MIPH PhD e: meimison at yahoo.com.au  m: +61 412 045 132 (Au.), +41 76 624 2021 (Ch.)s.: michelle.imison 

    On Tuesday, 22 February 2022, 12:58:03 am AEDT, pressgang-request at lists.yoyo.org <pressgang-request at lists.yoyo.org> wrote:  

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Today's Topics:

  1. Episode 6 - INTERFACE (Vince Deehan)

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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2022 13:57:27 +0000
From: Vince Deehan <vince.deehan at gmail.com>
To: Press Gang Mailing List <pressgang at lists.yoyo.org>
Subject: [pressgang] Episode 6 - INTERFACE
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    <CAHdRuKq97DeXm+gmrtQs1vw9ABOye6_R5KKJ_eFgraA22J_EaA at mail.gmail.com>
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PRESS GANG

Series 1

Episode 6 - Interface

Watched Monday 21/02/2022

As the episode starts there is a scene showing a box marked ?Bills?. This
opening sequence was totally unfamiliar to me and shows how long since I?ve
seen it and probably how few times I?ve seen this episode.

I like the way that just after the Mystery Writer?s first message appears,
the title card for the show appears and uses green typography to mimic the
way the computer words are appearing on the computer. Very clever and witty!

Billy (for he is the Mystery Writer, as we all know) sends his first review
which is very erudite and witty and is about the then current UK TV trend
for Ruth Rendell TV adaptations. His review is very critical and presumably
reflects the real views of Steven Moffat. I really can?t imagine the
character of Billy writing such a piece.

It made me think about a brilliant Ruth Rendell TV adaptation that I was
obsessed with back then. Though it turns out the drama I am thinking of
came out in 1992. It was called A FATAL INVERSION.
https://youtu.be/oweep1bexx4

The very early use of the Internet, given that it was filmed in 1988, is
pretty mind blowing. I guess it wasn?t called ?The Internet? at that time.
I?m no expert, but I am guessing the technology they are using had been
around for quite some time for use by scientists and computer boffins and
high tech industries, but had only recently started to be available to the
public?

It made me think of my first time using the Internet. Strangely for me, I
was quite an early adopter. I am fairly sure I got my first modem in late
1994. I guess my brother who works in I.T. must have helped me to set it
up. As I recall it, the first ever message that I sent online was a post to
a Usenet newsgroup called alt.comedy.british or maybe it was more likely
the one that was called rec.arts.tv.uk.  Anyway, I posted something about
and in praise of Press Gang and sent it off through the modem. This would
be around December 1994. Within a day or two, I received an e-mail from a
chap who says he was Steven Moffat?s best mate and that he would pass on my
message to him. A day or two later, an e-mail arrived into my very barren
inbox - who else would be writing to me, as no one I knew had an e-mail
address! The e-mail was from Steven Moffat himself, thanking me for the
kind words! As you can imagine, I nearly fell off my chair with
excitement!! The absolute wonder of e-mail and the Internet! Connecting me
with The Man himself!  Anyway, I digress.

Back to the episode. The old lady, who is dressed rather like Miss Marple,
has a brilliant expression on her face when she reveals that the Mystery
Writer is Mozart!

The scene where a queue of people line up claiming to be the Mystery Writer
really caught my eye, but not for any obvious reason. What caught my eye
was the very chunky boy standing at the head of the queue. He looked like a
dead ringer for the kinds of boys I used to secretly fancy at school!  I
was a teenager in the 1980s and at a boys and girls Catholic school, where
being openly gay was not an option. It was a feeling I had to bury deep
inside me, which was incredibly unhealthy for me psychologically as you can
probably imagine.

To be totally honest with you, the whole Press Gang obsession really
started as a very effective diversion from dealing with my sexuality, which
I just couldn?t handle at all or even remotely start to come to terms with.
Once I got hooked on the show, around 1991 when I was 21,  after some
repeats were shown between series 2 and series 3, I was watching it almost
every day for the next 5 years or maybe more. Well into my mid 20s. It was
a safe place for me and a fictional world I was very happy to disappear
into, as the real world was proving very difficult for me to navigate at
the time. I wonder if anyone else can relate to this?  Apologies if I have
over-shared. I know it?s not my usual style.

Just to get you up to date, I did eventually start to come to terms with
being a gay man when I was 28 years old. I got there in the end, just took
me some time. I am now very happily married and have been with my partner
and now husband, for 21 years.

Now that?s what I call a digression!! Back to the show..

So in freeze framing to check out the cute guy standing in the queue, who
did I spot but a man who looks a lot like our Steven Moffat! It?s
definitely him. He has very distinctive hair. There are a number of adults
standing behind him in the queue. I would guess they are members of the
production crew. Steven is holding something in his arms, but I can?t
figure out what it is.

Does anyone else here have a copy of The Press Gang Programme Guide?  It?s
a brilliant book which was published in 1995 and written by Jim Sangster,
Stephen O?Brien and Steve Lyons.  Are any of these chaps on the mailing
list? It?s really fantastic and has lots of inside facts and

Interesting comments.

The guide confirms that it really is Steven Moffat standing in the queue. I
looked it up, after watching the episode. What was of particular interest
to me, is that it mentions the character of the ?Large Boy? (that?s how he
appears in the credits) actually had some dialogue in this scene, but it
was cut. Here is the dialogue that he was given:

?That old lady, she?s just making it up about Mozart. I bet she doesn?t
even know a thing about Mozart. I bet she couldn?t name one of his
paintings? or any of his records!?

I noticed a neat pun when Billy sends in another of his TV reviews. At the
top of the screen it says ?Mr E on TV?, which sounds like ?Mystery on TV?
if you say it aloud.

In the scene in Spike?s bedroom, I noticed you can make out what his
cassettes are, if you pause the image. One is just a Tape Cassette Cleaner,
but you can clearly make out that one tape is a Miles Davis album, though
you can?t see which album. You can clearly see, if you

freeze frame, that one is a Billy Joel cassette. Specifically his album The
Nylon Curtain, which was released in 1982 and features one of my favourite
Billy Joel songs, ?Allentown?. Very sophisticated taste for Spike. Spike
mentions he is from New York and so is Billy Joel, so maybe

that?s one reason he?s a fan. Or it could just be some random cassettes put
there by the set designers.

Very funny scene of Lynda being pure Lynda, when she tells off Billy?s Dad
for not using enough washing up liquid.

I notice that there is no sign or mention of Billy?s Mum. This is quite a
common thread throughout Press Gang. Parents are rarely mentioned and
hardly ever seen, and when they are seen it?s usually just one parent. I?m
thinking of Lynda?s Mum. We never see her Dad.

Spike?s Mum appears in a later series. We often hear about his Dad, but I
don?t think we ever see an actor playing his Dad. Or do we? Is any of this
significant or is it just one less actor to be cast and paid for?

I like the way that the character of Billy is quite bolshy and confident.
He won?t let anyone talk down to him and he makes a joke about his
disability which neatly stops anyone else daring to comment on it.

The way that Spike initiates a group clap for Billy when he arrives is a
tad cheesy and a bit patronising. But this is very well countered by Lynda
who effectively tells him off for being late, whilst tacitly saying to him
that he is now one of the team. I must admit I found this moment

strangely moving. Well played Lynda. Great expression on Billy?s face as
the episode ends.

What a great episode it is. It?s also stirred up a lot of memories and
feelings for me. Enough already, I hear you cry!

Thanks for reading to the end.

I look forward to the next episode.

Vince

https://youtu.be/H5_LL2k1lHE
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