HOW TO MAKE A KILLING Part 1, by Claire N #PGat35

IMPORTANT: This review contains SPOILERS. Massive great honking ones. If you haven’t ever seen Press Gang (Seriously?! Are you a KD?!!!  What are you even doing here reading this, you fool?! Click right on over to Amazon, buy yourself the complete series boxset and remedy that situation immediately before you read any further…) #CommissionsEarned

Who is this girl, and just why does she draw on the pavement in front of a block of flats every month?

By now the Junior Gazette is up and running, the characters are familiar, both to the viewer and one another, and the news team is ready for a new challenge… No, not actually going home and doing their homework, but investigative journalism. And the idea springs from a quite unlikely source: professional Lynda calmer-downer, ‘nice’ Kenny Phillips.

Kenny has noticed that a girl from the nearby town of Macton goes to the same block of flats on the same day each month and draws a chalk outline of a person on the pavement. The figure is pointing at something. As his investigations continue he discovers that a boy fell to his death from the same block of flats two years ago. The Gazette report on the death is strangely sparse and Chrissie acts suspiciously when questioned about it. Kenny thinks he might have uncovered something big…

This is why I think HTMAK is a great episode.

Kenny (and Lynda)
I have to come clean here and admit that I’m a massive Kenny fan. He’s kind, patient, loyal and all round lovely. I can’t think of any other character quite like him in any media. In fact if I’d discovered Press Gang as a teenager I probably would have had a poster of him on my wall.

This is the episode where Kenny finds his voice. Instead of being office bound, correcting people’s spelling and acting as Lynda’s personal peacemaker, he’s out there in Spike’s usual territory, finding a story. At first Lynda isn’t convinced that there is something to find, but she allows Kenny to continue investigating and by halfway through he’s changed her mind.

In my opinion, one of the best things about this episode is the bickering between Kenny and Lynda. Whereas Spike and Lynda’s sniping is flirtatious and often spiteful, Kenny and Lynda are like an old married couple, raking up stories from ten or more years ago. When Kenny is waiting nervously for Jenny’s phone call, the usual roles in the relationship are reversed: he is agitated, and Lynda attempts to calm him down.

Kenny: I’ve been trying to keep the lid on the head of this girl since I was five years old and now she tells me I’m worked up.
Lynda: Don’t exaggerate.
Kenny: For twelve years I’ve been walking behind her picking shrapnel out of people.
Lynda: He’s exaggerating. He always exaggerates about everything.

They are so involved in their argument that neither of them notice when the phone eventually rings, leaving Sarah to answer it.

Unfortunately for Kenny’s nerves, he then has to call Jenny back. This leads him to confess that he’s never phoned a girl before. Sarah offers support, but Lynda takes the direct approach.

Lynda: That’s your trouble, Kenny. You can’t do anything for yourself, whatever it is you need me with you.
Kenny: Oh yeah!
Lynda: Absolutely! You can’t even make a phone call on your own.
Kenny: Can’t I?!
Lynda: Obviously not!
Kenny: Right!  (Kenny picks up the phone.)
Lynda: This should be good.
Kenny: It will be…
Lynda: Can’t miss this!
Kenny: Better not!
Lynda: At long last, Kenny Philips goes solo.
Kenny: Yeah, so watch out!

I’m not sure whether this is Lynda continuing the argument or whether she riles Kenny deliberately to push him into making the call, but it works as the next scene is…

The Date
Kenny and Jenny meet at Czars (where else?) for the briefcase-swap-turned-date. The whole sequence is brilliant. Nervous Kenny being rather aggressively flirted with is great to watch and the whole thing is well-acted by Lee and guest star Sadie Frost (proving that she is actually a pretty good actor). When, in amongst the flirting, Kenny mentions the Highpoint Flats, Jenny’s negative reaction (she says it’s a ‘bad subject’) leads him to abandon his questions for the rest of the date.

After Jenny leaves, it is revealed that Frazz has been sitting on the table behind throughout the whole date, presumably brought along for moral support. He’s not impressed by Kenny’s reporting skills to say the least.

Information gathering techniques with questionable moral standards
Previous episodes have demonstrated that the Junior Gazette team aren’t averse to obtaining information in slightly dodgy ways. HTMAK is no exception. Kenny must have been following Jenny for some time to know that she goes to the Highpoint Flats on the same day each month. As they’ve never spoken this seems quite like stalking. Additionally, he seems to have taken Danny along to take photos with his telephoto lens. Nothing creepy about that at all then!
Then there’s the briefcase swap. Two identical briefcases, a bit of low-level sexual harassment from Spike and Frazz and Jenny has a briefcase containing Kenny’s phone number. An old ploy but an effective one on this occasion. Still, a bit on the dodgy side though.

Back at the newsroom, Billy has a sudden change of heart and agrees to allow Chrissie to interview him for the adult paper. Of course, the only reason for this radical change in his stance is to provide cover for Kate to sneak into Chrissie’s office, ‘borrow’ the notebooks she claimed were lost, and copy out the relevant bits. Although the intentions were honourable, I’m not sure the Leveson Inquiry would approve of this method.