[pressgang] Episode 7: How To Make A Killing - Part 1

[Dipskit Comedy]

Hi Vince

Very enjoyable review. 😀

I love the cafe scene with Kenny and the straw too. It’s so cute. Even the detail of Jenny ordering coffee while Kenny has Coke shows how she’s a little more sophisticated than him. I like how she enjoys his shyness and getting him the straw is a great moment to show she likes him.

I assumed Frazz is at the cafe as a back-up to listen to what Jenny says. Lynda would well know that Kenny is likely to get flustered.

I see the train station case swap as a play on those spy movies with the old briefcase switcheroo. The guys cat-calling Jenny was pretty standard teen behaviour back then. These days they’d probably be asking for nekkid pics on Snapchat. 😳

I think Andy died around 2018. I’d say this is the same person and talks a bit about what he was like when he was younger:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Steve-Brame2

Cheers
Claire

> On 5 Mar 2022, at 02:56, Vince Deehan <vince.deehan at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> PRESS GANG
> Series 1 
> Episode 7 - How To Make A Killing - Part 1
> Watched Friday March 4th
> 
> Apologies for being so late with my copy this week. Lynda would not have approved, as the week is almost over and the deadline was approaching.
> 
> I have the day off work today so I started my day by finally catching up with How To Make A Killing -Part 1. It’s a very interesting episode and the first of several two-part stories for Press Gang.
> 
> The episode begins with someone, presumably Danny the photographer, taking some very well composed and artful black and white shots of a school girl drawing a chalk outline on the ground. The school girl is wearing what is very recognisable to most UK viewers as a private school uniform. The two clues are the colour of her blazer and the hat she is carrying. Private (aka pay-feeing schools) usually have much brighter coloured school uniforms. I always thought this made them a sitting target for abuse and heckling from any state school children they may encounter on their way to and from school. The hat is the other clue. I think it’s probably just for the girls, but I have never seen a state school which had a hat as part of the uniform. I still see schoolchildren today wearing these private school uniforms. I wonder if they feel at all self conscious and horribly exposed. I know I would. 
> 
> I suspect the uniform is seen as a source of pride by their parents, but I doubt many of the kids like being so easily spotted as ‘posh’ private school kids. Can you tell from all this, that I went to a state school? I did wonder if the actor Sadie Frost, who plays the ‘pavement artist’ Jenny, refused to wear the hat. I’m pretty certain we never see her wearing it. You just see her carrying it in her hand.
> 
> Great scene with Billy Homer and Chrissie, where he unleashes a torrent of comments and jokes that seem designed to make her as uncomfortable as possible. He really is impossible to patronise and likes to have the upper hand. I admire that about him. He skirts very close to being quite obnoxious, but somehow just goes as far to that line as possible and holds back - even only a little. I wonder if this was very much like the real personality of the actor who plays Billy, Andy Crowe. Did I read somewhere that Andy Crowe had died? He made a big impression in Press Gang. There were almost no disabled actors on T.V. back in 1989, maybe none at all.
> He was really breaking new ground.
> 
> The scene at the train station when Kenny switches the briefcases is pretty creepy and weird.
> I like the way that Jenny reacts when Spike and Frazz start shouting at her to get her attention.
> She just turns away from them. I wonder if boys today would still behave like this. I suspect yes? Maybe groups of teenage girls do the same to boys they fancy, but want to tease and taunt them first. I literally have no idea.
> 
> The scene when Kenny effectively goes on a date with Jenny at Czar’s Cafe is excellent. 
> I know Lee Ross is a superb actor, but I did start to wonder if he was genuinely shy and nervous
> sitting across from the extremely attractive Sadie Frost. His blushing and awkwardness is palpable. Maybe Lee was really feeling this way too. Sadie Frost plays it so cool and confident.
> The comments from the waitress Maria about Kenny and his penchant for having a straw in his coke, are hilarious. Jenny says Kenny is like a teddy bear. I agree. He really is so sweet and likeable. 
> 
> Just looked up the ages of Lee Ross and Sadie Frost. Sadie was born in 1965 and Lee in 1971,
> Meaning that in 1988 during filming that scene Lee was around 17 years old and Sadie was  23 years old. No wonder he looks so shy sitting in front of her. He was very much still a boy and she was an adult woman.
> 
> What was the point of Frazz sitting behind Kenny at the cafe? He wasn’t recording the conversation, was he? I don’t think so. In hindsight, when re-watching it you can kind of see it’s him as the scene starts. 
> 
> I really enjoyed this episode and I look forward to watching the second part next week.
> 
> Thanks for reading to the end.
> 
> Have a great weekend everyone!
> 
> Vince Deehan
> 
> https://youtu.be/_8PdTY1GvTc
> 
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