[pressgang] Episode 6 - INTERFACE

Tue Feb 22 02:54:27 GMT 2022

Hi Vince (and all)!

Gosh there are so many things I have the same thoughts about!

It’s so funny to me now (and to be honest, even a bit at the time) how Lynda and the others talk about modems and one computer being able to send messages to another. Could show it to kids today as a history lesson. 😉

OMG finally someone who knows and loves A Fatal Inversion! It remains my favourite ever Rendell adaptation. 😀

Very cool how SM sent you an email back then! High tech.

Thanks for the trivia about the queue of fake mystery writers. That’s really interesting! I’ve also watched PG over the years when I want something that’s like the TV version of a blankie or comfort food. The reason I binged series 1-4 just recently was for that reason. Thank you for sharing your story with us. Lots of love to your husband and you. ❤️

I love the washing-up liquid bit too. Lynda in a nutshell. I also love how it leads to her realising there was an inside contact and Spike appears.

I’ve always had a theory about the photo of Spike and his dad that we see several times in later series. The man looks a lot like Dexter, so I wonder if it’s his actual dad. Does anyone know?

The cheesy applause for Billy made me cringe at the time and still does. It was so American-style and clichéd. Lynda’s line is a welcome return to sarcasm.

Cheers

Claire

> On 22 Feb 2022, at 00:57, Vince Deehan <vince.deehan at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 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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