"Press Gang" was a British afternoon kids' show that ran from 1989 to 1993. I watched it avidly, and I have just relived the delights via DVD. This first episode, "Page One", introduces the "gang" that we'll all come to love - Lynda Day, the brilliant and smart-mouthed Editor, her long-suffering Assistant Editor Kenny ("I could 'nice' for Britain"), Sarah Jackson, head of Features, near-comatose Frazz Davis, and Colin Mathews, who handles the money and would do anything to make more. They're all students at Norbridge High, a mixture of the best the school has to offer and those students who need to channel their energy in more positive directions! That direction is the Junior Gazette, a newspaper "by kids, for kids", run professionally with only a little help from their parent paper, the Gazette. It all sounds a little cheesy, but believe me, it isn't! The writing (by Steven Moffat, who went on to write the hugely popular and successful British sit-com Coupling) is sharp, witty, and intriguing, especially when Lynda meets her antithesis, Spike Thomson, an American who's given the choice of joining the Junior Gazette or getting kicked out of school. Spike elects to join the paper, planning on finding a quiet spot and napping - until he meets Lynda and finds that he'd rather prove to her that he's not as dumb as he seems. This first episode, Page One, introduces the cast and the first edition of the Junior Gazette. Rumour has it that the local disco is being closed down to make way for a new supermarket, and when Spike and Frazz spot the owner talking to a couple of shady-looking figures who are checking out the disco, and then the owner refuses to comment, rumour begins to look like fact. But when the Junior Gazette prints the story, they find out that all was not as it seemed. Will their story sink the paper before it even starts, or make them local heroes? You'll have to watch to find out!
