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Press Gang Season 2Director: Various Rating: M 302 mins Force Entertainment Let's not beat around the bush: 'Press Gang' was one of the best UK series of the 90s. It's appropriate that it's getting a release in tandem with the Canadian series 'Degrassi Jr High': both shows were after-school staples on the ABC, both had young casts dealing with the same sort of life issues as their characters and both were written by people who, thankfully, didn't think their young audiences were idiots. 'Press Gang', though, had one extra ace in the hole: it was also blessed with a oh-so-British sense of humour and a cast who could pull off icy sarcasm and straight-faced comedy with their drama - sort of a less-topical 'Drop The Dead Donkey' for the early teen set. This double DVD set contains all 13 episodes of the second season and by this time the actors have really settled into their roles as the staff of teenage paper 'The Junior Gazette'. Julia Sawalha (best known these days as Saffy from 'Absolutely Fabulous') has perfected her performance as editor Lynda Day, neatly mixing hard-nosed bitchiness with normal teenage confusion. Dexter Fletcher's fake American accent is more solid this series in the role of Spike Thompson, the bad boy Lynda can't help but love, and the strong supporting cast of the put-upon Kenny (Lee Ross), the get-rich-quick advertising chief Colin (Paul Reynolds) and the always-dependable chief reporter Sarah (Kelda Holmes) are all in top form. There are a few absences from the first season: Charlie Creed-Miles' photographer Danny MacColl had left, as had Lucy Benjamin's layout editor Julie Craig, replaced by future Bond girl and 'Scent Of A Woman' starlet Gabrielle Anwar as Sam Black. The dialogue is above average, especially when the principals are trying to out-quip each other (Lynda: "Is that a joke about my height?" Spike: "I wouldn't stoop so low.") but, as you'd expect, the show also deals with a range of "issues" ranging from child abuse to terrorist bombings (and this was 1990, before acts of terrorism became so mainstream), as well as the pressures of balancing the characters' school lives with a high-pressure work environment. While each episode stands alone nicely, there are certain story arcs that carry over the entire series and therefore should keep you in front of the screen over an entire weekend. What's even more interesting, given what I do for a living these days, is that there are certain details that ring impressively true (the episode where everyone's called in at 1am to re-lay out the paper for the following morning's print has a certain painful resonance, for example). Sure, there are a few things that seem frankly bizarre in these online-savvy times (one phone for an entire newsroom? Typewriters? Paste-down layout sheets?) and the show began to slide once the Spike/Lynda relationship inevitably began (as does every show that relies on unresolved sexual tension, from 'Who's The Boss?' to 'Ed'), but for my money this was the golden period. Grab this and Season 1, kick back and enjoy.  |
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