GOING BACK TO JASPER STREET, by Mark Aldridge #PGat25
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…)
Press Gang was never shy of character studies – not only of Lynda, but also of the ‘grown ups’ that she encounters, and the assorted collection of (mostly) reprobates who work on the Junior Gazette at some point. One of the best characterisations of the series is one that also goes mostly unspoken, however – the relationship between Lynda and Kenny. Their friendship is fully established from the show’s opening episode, not through awkward exposition, but by the confidence with which they interact. Lynda knows Kenny, Kenny knows Lynda, and they like each other no matter how much they don’t like each other on any given day. There is no sexual chemistry, no ‘will they won’t they’ threads left hanging (oh how easy it would have been for the show to have Lynda choosing between ‘good guy’ Kenny and ‘bad boy’ Spike until the finale, where she inevitably embraces the Junior Gazette’s printing presses instead, only to reprimand herself for messing up the kerning).
Going Back to Jasper Street‘s examination of character is not unusual, then, but the lightness of touch and glimpses into the unseen history of Lynda and Kenny makes it particularly appealing. We see a young Lynda (who was surely not born but created) and Kenny, who likes to give the impression of being put-upon, but knows full well what he’s doing. Our way into this exploration is a MacGuffin, but it’s a good one.
Lynda is haunted by a memory of a carved wooden ornament, and feels genuine guilt over something – but she can’t remember what. Lynda generally avoids the emotive resonance of guilty feelings – even in the next season’s The Last Word, with its shocking denouement – only really allowing herself to explore the question of blame during the fireside chat of the programme’s finale. Resultantly, it’s an uneasy Lynda who realises that she can’t suppress, or alleviate, this guilt until she find out what is causing it. All that she can remember is that it seems to be linked to Kenny’s birthday a decade earlier, when she escaped from her garden and found herself on nearby Jasper Street.
This small, but captivating, mystery is the main focus of the episode. Spike and Colin offer the broad comedy this week with their attempts to move the affections of a girl from the former to the latter. More interestingly, Gabrielle Anwar’s Sam spars with Kenny using dialogue no doubt originally intended for Lucy Benjamin’s Julie, but played entirely differently. When Sam says that she doesn’t understand the words Kenny uses, Anwar plays it with a twinkle in her eye (is ‘I don’t understand’ code for ‘I’m not interested’?, the audience wonders), whereas Benjamin’s Julie would have been genuinely confused. Both actors offered strong performances in the two roles, but they also present very different readings of what could have been an identical part, which is credit to them both.
For a younger audience the mystery surrounding a vague memory of a carved wooden figure maintains the interest, but the reinforcement of the friendship between Kenny and Lynda provides the real delight for older viewers. Knocking on the front door of the Jasper Street house in question, Kenny asks, “Remember we used to do this and run away?”, to which Lynda replies: “I ran away. You stayed and apologised”. In one tiny, neatly remembered memory we not only get a joke but a reinforcement of the characters – Lynda’s headstrong persona versus Kenny’s polite keenness to do the ‘right’ thing.
The opening ‘Ten Years Ago’ flashback allows us to see the genesis of a friendship that would mature (a little) over the coming decade. It’s Kenny’s birthday, which a six year old Lynda refuses to acknowledge – even going so far as to hide the present she is supposed to give him. Nevertheless, Kenny covers for her when Lynda’s annoyed mother tries to track her down, setting up the dynamic of their future friendship. Such young actors cannot be expected to offer a great deal of depth in their performances, but the younger Kenny’s constant smile offers a deflection of Lynda’s meanness, while he also acknowledges it by verbally challenging her claims.
It’s perhaps surprising that Lynda is particularly obnoxious as a young child, raising the horrifying prospect that the Lynda we know and love from the ‘present day’ has, in fact, mellowed over time. For the teenage Lynda, it’s not that she enjoys being mean, it’s just that she doesn’t get anything out of being nice. By contrast, in the flashback she’s borderline sociopathic, casually lying to her mother for no particular reason in the opening scene. Given that he protects Lynda without a second thought, even as a young child, we can draw one of two conclusions – either Kenny was either a glutton for punishment from a young age, or (preferably) he sees through it as a defence mechanism. In the end, Kenny’s emotional maturity is more than a match for Lynda’s stubbornness.
When, in the flashback, Kenny literally turns up as Lynda’s knight in shining (plastic) armour, he is met with her riposte: “He followed me! He always follows me!” She may be ungrateful on the surface, but when we see the young Lynda and Kenny walking down the path at the episode’s conclusion, we see that she is really rather pleased. A decade later, on the same road, Lynda says “Sometimes I think I’m not a very nice person”. “Well I like you”, Kenny responds, only to be met with Lynda’s dismissive claim that “You like everyone!”. She may give the impression of being as dismissive as ever, but this time, when Lynda realises that Kenny is following her, she can’t hide her smile…
Character Gallery: Series 2 #PGat25 (Updated)
BREAKFAST AT CZARS, by Claire N #PGat25
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…)
The second series of Press Gang is my favourite by far, and Breakfast at Czars gets it off to a great start. (In fact I like the episode so much I wrote a review several years ago on Livejournal. I’ve plagiarised myself a fair bit here so apologies to anyone who experiences a feeling of déjà vu!)
As the first episode of a new series, Breakfast at Czars has a lot to do. When it was originally shown, Press Gang had been off the air for eight whole months, so the audience needed to be reminded what it was all about. Additionally if anyone had been crazy enough to have missed series one completely, this was an opportunity to hook them in. The result is a fast-paced episode featuring a main plot, several sub-plots and a significant update to the Spike and Lynda story arc. Phew! With all this going on each of the characters is given an opportunity to demonstrate to the audience what they do best.
My favourite thing about BAC is the way it all fits together. From the moment the lights come on and the music starts in the cold opening we are plunged back in to the world of the newsroom. The art department has done a fabulous job dressing the set with the remnants of a party basically so Lynda can pull it apart. As usual the little touches are perfect – the way Julie’s name has been scrawled out and replaced with Sam’s on the Graphics Department window, the infamous computer from Interface on a desk in the back of the shot, the framed copy of the first edition on the wall, and many more.
The main adults vs kids plot is a bit on the weak side. Steven Moffat admits in the commentary that the scenes with the adults were shot later by a different director and aren’t very good. But the sub-plots are great, Frazz’s shock as he is repeatedly congratulated for writing accurate horoscopes, Colin and his escapologist-related problems and the introduction of three new characters, slightly evil seeming lower school students Sophie and Laura (seen briefly in Shouldn’t I Be Taller measuring Mr Sullivan for a tomb) and new Head of the Graphics, Sam Black. The episode flits between plot-lines without losing momentum. I particularly admire the tracking shot near the beginning of the episode, which takes in four different sets of characters and includes Lynda moving from one conversation to another. Quite an achievement for a kids show! I think even ER would have been proud of that one.
Although Moffat gives each character plenty to do in this episode, he makes it clear from the outset that it’s really all about Lynda. Our favourite Editor rushes through BAC like a whirlwind, interacting with almost everyone in the newsroom. She’s found a worthy new sparring partner in Sam, who has replaced the disappeared-without-a-mention Julie. Sam’s not afraid of taking Lynda on, something which is clearly annoying Da Boss:
Of course no episode of Press Gang would be complete without a bit of Spike and Lynda trying to figure out their relationship. Breakfast at Czars includes one of the most significant scenes in their story to date – the ‘Nearly Kiss’.
Steven Moffat explains in the commentary that the Nearly Kiss was written and added later when the episode ran under time. He goes on to say he thinks it ‘makes’ the episode. I disagree. In my opinion the scene in which Charlotte enters the newsroom is much more interesting. This scene is firmly embedded in the plot of the episode, whilst the Nearly Kiss scene feels tacked on, which of course it is. I’m also not convinced that Lynda would go for a test kiss, especially so firmly on Spike’s terms. It doesn’t seem to fit in with her personality through the series up to this point. Conversely, the scene with Charlotte fits perfectly. Firstly, Lynda panics as she realises that Spike has been invited but hasn’t arrived yet, but he walks in before she has a chance to make herself presentable. [Ed: And this is of course the complete opposite of her reaction when she thought Spike was downstairs in her kitchen in Money, Love & Birdseed… ]
Series two marks a change in the way Spike and Lynda’s relationship works. In series one Spike constantly asked Lynda out, but they built up a strong friendship in the background. I think that following the ‘twirly hug’ at the end of Shouldn’t I be Taller, Spike realised that he was getting somewhere with Lynda and stepped his tactics up a gear. In this episode he’s actively trying to make her jealous, a tactic which works very well. The look on Lynda’s face when she meets the beautiful Charlotte is one of pure disdain.
Spike, however, knows exactly what he’s doing at this stage and rubs salt in the wound by revealing that not only is Charlotte better looking than Lynda, she’s older and cleverer too. No wonder Lynda’s jealousy leads her to resort to desperate measures. Spike has underestimated Lynda once again! Lynda’s obvious distraction whilst on the phone to Chrissie is excellently filmed. I’m not the biggest fan of the Nearly Kiss, but I think Kenny’s reaction to catching them together is fantastic. Lee Ross has such great comic timing.
I also feel that Colin’s role in Breakfast at Czars deserves a special mention. A comic sub-plot about an escape artist getting stuck in a box could easily have been a dull, kids TV stereotype. However, the winning combination of Moffat’s writing and Paul Reynolds’ performance makes it very funny. I particularly love the scene where Colin attempts, very poorly, to explain why he is carrying a selection of tools. When the hammer falls out of his inside pocket I’m fairly sure he has to jump out of the way to avoid it hitting his foot. Doing his own stunts like a true pro! Colin’s scenes are expertly woven in, so the sub-plot doesn’t feel at all tacked on. He even joins the team for Breakfast at Czars the following morning accompanied by the escapologist still in his sack.
If anyone ever asks me to recommend an episode of Press Gang to watch I always suggest this one. I think it is a great introduction to the show and works well as a stand alone. It’s a also a great set up for the rest of the series. In the words of the great Kenny Phillips:
Press Gang @ 35 