Posted in: TV | Tagged: Press Gang, steven moffat

"Press Gang In Downing Street" – Steven Moffat And Number 10?

"Press Gang In Downing Street" - what exactly is Doctor Who and Sherlock's Steven Moffat doing in Number 10, for Channel 4?

"Lynda Day…  what a girl, sort of a fireproof Joan Of Arc, a Mary Queen Of Scots with her head together, the most glowing example of womankind since Madame Curie"
"Colin, where's all this going?"
"Oh Prime Minister, I reckon"
Press Gang – The Week and Pizza, ITV 1990, written by Steven Moffat.

Steven Moffat has described his upcoming Channel 4 TV series, Number 10, as "Press Gang in Downing Street". Well, what does that mean, and how the hell is that going to work?

In 1989, a new TV writer, Steven Moffat, got the extraordinarily lucky chance to launch his first television show, a kids' comedy drama in the fashion of Moonlighting, about a junior newspaper, airing on ITV in the post-school late afternoon/early evening slot. I was 16, it rapidly became my favourite TV show of all, and it never really stopped. Entering sixth form myself, I started my own student magazine after contributing to the official school magazine and finding it lacking. I was encouraged when a flashback episode of Press Gang showed that the main cast had done the same thing back then as well. Again, I never really stopped.

In 1992, I went to university and discovered this thing called the internet, which I had seen in an episode of Press Gang. I started writing news stories about my other passion, comic books, on the pre-web USEnet newsgroups, and still watched Press Gang. Taped it off the TV, helped by some Channel 4 early evening repeats, where it found a whole new audience. I discovered that Steven Moffat was also active on USEnet, and I messaged him briefly. I told him I had managed to miss recording a couple of episodes of Press Gang off the TV. He sent me a VHS tape of those very episodes, along with a couple of his episodes of Murder Most Horrid. Who else does that sort of thing? Oh, yes, I was studying Politics at Newcastle University, and edited three issues of the politics magazine. It was called Number 10.

So I keep on keeping on, my writing leads me to advertising rather than journalism, or indeed politics, but I keep up with the comics news column, from UseNET to its own website, then Silver Bullet Comic Books, Next Planet Over, Comic Book Resources and finally, sixteen years ago, Bleeding Cool from Avatar Press, which, initially at least, was pretty much built around me, just as my advertising career came to a screeching halt. A lot has changed since, but I can draw a direct line, in a very real sense, without Press Gang, there is no Bleeding Cool.

The Press Gang That Started It All

I'm not the only hack inspired by the show; plenty of fifty-somethings had their own similar spark of inspiration from watching such a tightly written series, which featured better dialogue than any TV show at the time, encompassed an earnest desire to tell the truth, even if you had to deceive outrageously to get it out there. Some journalists will talk about being inspired by Julia Sawalha's unstoppable force, as Lynda Day, while others are inspired by Kelda Holmes' dedicated and honest portrayal as Sarah Jackson or Dexter Fletcher's sleazy but heartfelt Spike Thompson. I was all about Paul Reynolds' Colin Matthews, the unapologetic Slytherin accounts manager, manipulator, and outright fraudster who, when given the chance to take over the Junior Gazette, turned it into a tabloid. I would have worn "Colin Matthews Was Right" T-shirts if that had been a thing.

I recently rewatched the whole thing again, and it 100% stands up. A few dodgy actors and appeals to worthiness aside, it's a period piece now, of a time when journalism was a respectable and potentially lucrative field to enter, and Press Gang was there to point out how that might not be the case for much longer. As well as for Steven Moffat to begin his journey in writing television scripts as puzzle boxes, not restrained by the usual expectations of linearity or common sense, to go on flights of fancy, but always bringing it down to Earth with pinned down sharp and sparky characters, who all get to say the kind of things we all wish we could, if we'd had the gumption, speed and wit of the moment. And all wrapped up in a structure that flash-forwarded and flash-backed, sometimes at the same time, going beyond what television had, at that point, attempted. Coupling, Sherlock, his Doctor Who, they were all yet to come, but then so was West Wing, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and even Better Call Saul. But Press Gang, even more than Hill Street Blues and Moonlighting, was getting in there first.

We have longed for a sequel of sorts ever since. The series was cancelled for "outgrowing its timeslot" at 5pm on kids TV, and there's no arguing that it had. The characters, not just the actors, who were increasingly into their twenties, and the show had chosen not to refresh with new, younger cast members years before. There was meant to be a film, Deadline, but that went away. Every now and then, the likes of Steven Moffat, Julia Sawalha, and even Gabrielle Anwar talk about doing a sequel one-shot. Hey, you could even get Dexter Fletcher, the director of Bohemian Rhapsody, to do it. But it just never seems to happen.

Number 10 is "Press Gang In Downing Street" – Steven Moffat

But now… a new TV show Number 10, as in Downing Street. The Whitehall address in London for the Prime Minister's residence, next to that of the Chancellor Of The Exchequer, and a host of other government bodies and buildings with access to power. And the idea, like with Press Gang, of having a dynamic of a group of people from similar-ish backgrounds, but travelling very different paths, who have, for this one moment, found themselves all in the close confines of the corridors of the British government. And with a clash of veniality, ideology, self-doubt and self-worth, trying to do the right thing, as long as it's their kind of right thing. And also still being there the next day, next week, next month, next year, next election. How could those Press Gang characters play out?

At the core of Press Gang is editor-in-chief Lynda Day, a ball-busting, uncompromising, manipulative high achiever, with self-doubts she could never admit to. It can be no coincidence that Margaret Thatcher was still Prime Minister ten years on when Lynda was invented. Nevertheless, Lynda Day remains one of the best characters ever portrayed on screen, refusing to conform to any stereotype, and if anyone has ever complained about the way Steven Moffat writes women, she is Exhibit A for the defence. Could the Prime Minister, whoever she is, embody such attributes?

Spike Thompson, Lynda's on-again-off-again love interest, bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks, only here because of Lynda Day, and if being a good journalist is the way to get to her, well, that's what he'll do, until he realises that maybe he's just too honest to be what she wants. Well, could the Prime Minister's consort of choice be from another political party? A spin doctor, there to tell her what she needs to know, even if she never listens? Sarah Jackson, I mean, basically, she's Jess Phillips, isn't she? Hardworking, determined, and ideologically committed, yet often gets walked over by others. Until that one time she turns on Lynda, after learning all the lessons from Lynda that Lynda hadn't meant to teach her. Kenny Phillips, chief Whip, is the one who smooths everyone down after Lynda has gone ballistic. He hands out the tissues, and he gets walked over even more than Sarah, until he's had enough and goes to Australia. Or in this case, the House Of Lords. And Colin Matthews. The svengali, the monster, without whom the system wouldn't work. The Peter Mandelson, the Dominic Cummings, the Alastair Campbell. There's always a scandal, but the risk is worth it if you actually want to get things done.

Whatever Steven Moffat is planning, whoever he is casting, whenever it is broadcast, however long it takes, I am down for this television show more than any other. Even more than that Netflix revival of Garth Merenghi's Darkplace I keep hearing about. I am ready to fall in love with it all over again. And if you wanted to catch up, well, it's all streaming on ITVX in the UK, but if you are geolocked, someone has kindly uploaded the entirety of Press Gang, unchallenged for five years, to YouTube. And Andrew Luke has also provided some very entertaining in-depth analyses of the show, episode by episode, which is also worth watching. Press Gang lasted for five years. Which is long as a British electoral cycle, unless something goes wrong and Colin Matthews sells Westminster Abbey to the Emirates…

You don't suppose it's going to inspire a whole new generation of politicians, do you? Perish the thought…

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!