MovieChat Forums > Press Gang (1989) Discussion > Favourite and least favourite character

Favourite and least favourite character


Okay, so this is probably an obvious and not very imaginative topic, but what are your favourite and least favourite characters from the series?

As a young boy, Spike was just what I'd like to be - funny, brash and confident. But I think just tipping him to the position of my favourite character would have to be Colin. He was just so funny; brilliantly written, and wonderfully played by Paul Reynolds, as a junior Arthur Daley. I like in the second series episode 'Friends Like These', how Colin spends the whole episode dressed as some sort of alien bug thing, with no explanation ever given!

(By the way, Lynda... loads of kids used to fancy her. Personally, I found her too forceful and over-bearing - not to mention that as a kid, there was a local bully whose last name was Day, that always put me off for some reason hehe. But as I've grown older... mmm, I can definitely see the attraction. Lucky Spike!)

Least favourite characters? Well, it's a tough one, as they were all so well written and acted. But I think I'd have to go for Sarah. The acting and delivery in the series was so natural feeling, but - with the greatest of respect to Kelda Holmes - Sarah's dialogue just sounded so forced, like something you'd hear in a school play. And the character just somehow seemed less life-like an interesting than the others. Just my opinion.

reply

"Least favourite characters? Well, it's a tough one, as they were all so well written and acted. But I think I'd have to go for Sarah. The acting and deliver in the series was so natural feeling, but - with the greatest of respect to Kelda Holmes - Sarah's dialogue just sounded so forced, like something you'd hear in a school play. And the character just somehow seemed less life-like an interesting than the others. Just my opinion"


I can not stand Sarah!! Oh my god, just thinking about her makes me angry, lol. She was the most boring, monotone and just plain annoying characters on the series.

My favourite chracters would have to be Spike and Colin.
Colin, being an obvious choice, since he's so hilarious and outrageous.
Spike *sighs lovingly* So charming, funny, handsome, cool and definitely confident. Haha :)

reply

I'm glad I'm not alone on my thoughts on Sarah. I feared it was just me!!
I remember, even watching the series as a child, she was the one (the only one) that I didn't like, that was impossible to warm to, the only one who wasn't really good. The character didn't have as much depth, and I think was mis-cast.
Ironically, the only episode in which I actually started to remotely have time for Sarah, was in the fifth series episode 'Friendly Fire' - the one in which she leaves. Finally, slightly more depth was given to her (even though it was one of the rare instances in the series that there was some contraditions to the show's background), but alas too little too late. Still think she was miscast though.

I've just finished watching the entire series on DVD (had most of the episodes on VHS, but hadn't seen some of the late ones for many years), and while Colin stands out as a favourite, I prefered him in the first couple of series. In the later ones, he didn't work as well, he just seemed a little *too* goofy.

And one final thought... think this might be a little controversial... but I actually like Kenny. Although not always immediately noticable, he has many subtle but sharp lines and responses. I actually think when he left the series it lost something.

reply

"And one final thought... think this might be a little controversial... but I actually like Kenny. Although not always immediately noticable, he has many subtle but sharp lines and responses. I actually think when he left the series it lost something."

Hahaha, yeah I love Kenny! His character was so witty. Annoying at times, but still very quick witted and funny. He was cool in a so-uncool-that-he's-cool way.
One of my favourite lines of the whole series was in "The Last Word" (I think that was the name of the episode) and the gun man who is taking them hostage comes in, points the gun at Kenny and is all "who's in charge here?" and Kenny's like "uh, you've got my vote". Hahahaha. Classic!

reply

Favourite characters? That's too easy (or hard, depending on which way you look at it)

I can't go past Spike- on face value, yes, he's the charming, charismatic and witty guy. But you gotta love his empathatic, street wise, sensitive side. (That's why I love the episodes 'At Last A Dragon' and 'Love and War' so much!)

In very close second- Lynda (of course, gotta love her fire- pardon the pun and the L&S URST), Kenny (Mr. Nice), Colin (as a budding commerce student myself) and......Sam!

Fifth would go to Frazz. I love all the horoscope lines!

My least favourite is Julie. Especially after her return. I found her lines one dimensional and her character lame. I suppose it didn't help that the discontinuity of the head of graphics team was the worse case of discontinutity in the whole series. (Sorry for the overuse of discontinutity!)
And besides, no one can replace Kenny.

In the defence of Sarah, yes, her lines were rather flat but I found her like a Frazz character- a character that was great in the background. I think the series needed a more solid character like Sarah in the series- she was great for those stressed exam moments and awkward boyfriends. I guess she was the more 'typical teen' that people could relate to.

reply

I actually rather like Frazz in his own way. He's another character that works better in the background, but comes out with some great lines.
Sarah could have been the same, but just didn't work in my view. As I said before, not as much character depth, and the only one miscast IMO. She could have been really solid, the more "unlucky in love teen", but just didn't work.

Julie wasn't bad, but just seemed a little flat in comparison to Kenny IMO.

reply

Lol, yeah, Frazz was bareable but Sarah with her boring lines, monotone voice, blank facial expressions and that annoying scar on her lip (okay, that was harsh and going too far :P) was just far too annoying for me to stand her.

I liked Julie when she came back and was move involved.

I didn't like Sam, she just was some dumb skank, lol.

Oh, and lets not forget the teacher! I've forgotten his name now. The like deputy or whatever he was, he was hilarious!

reply

Sullivan! Of course!

Again a good background character. I like the teacher the students could actually talk to and reason with, somewhat.

Gotta love his continuity with the women issues (for lack of a better term)- the date ruined by Lynda when he had a sewage problem (Deadline?), making a bet with Spike on whether he could get a date with his friend of the lady kind (At Last A Dragon), any others?

reply

Okay, let's put it another way - is there anyone that LIKES Sarah?! =)

I quite liked both Julie and Sam. They were very similar (indeed, Sam was originally designed as a last-minute replacement for Julie in series 2).

Sam might have been a "dumb skank", but that's what she was SUPPOSED to be. I love how she is so self-centered, and one of the few people not afriad to stand up to Lynda.

It was good to see Julie return in series 4, but at the same time it meant no Kenny. I would have prefered her back as head of graphics. Or maybe as a replacement for Sar---... well, you get the idea.

Oh, and haven't mentioned, Sophie and Laura. Two messed up little girls. Love them!

reply

Lol. What about Tiddler?
She was pretty annoying although I liked her first episode where she argues with Lynda about being able to write for the Junior Gazette.

reply

I realised I hadn't mentioned Tiddler after I posted. I liked her. I didn't think she was annoying, or at least, any more annoying than she was *supposed* to be. They should have promoted her to head writer when Sarah left (she was old enough anyway by that point), but as it was, she only appeared once in the final series.

reply

Ooohh God where to start?

I dont think I 'hated' any of the characters, because the dialogue was always so good that it didnt matter so much about the delivery (where Sarah was concerned) Although I always found Sarahs voice just annoying, I dont know if I just found it impossible to get past the voice and hear what she was actually saying!

I love the 'friendly Fire' episode although it didnt really make me like Sarah so much, but it made me like Lynda even more because it just showed you how ruthless she was even as a child. Love all the dialogue in her bedroom about her cat dying etc.

Yea as youve probably guessed, Lynda was my absolute favourite character EVER on TV I think! I just love her lines, her sheer determination, her intelligence like the way she dealt with the Clown gunman in 'A Last word' she could have single handedly got him out of there with noone being unjured if it hadnt been for Colin!

Anyway, Yeah I say Lynda is my fave!I have to say though I like her more because Julia Sawalha played her so well and made her likeable! Although i do love Spike, especially the chemistry between him and Lynda. And Colin, for the rabbit routine in 'A night in' or whatever it was called!

Mandy!

reply

Like most people, Colin was my favourite when I watched Press Gang as a kid. He's pretty high up when I watch it now too but, as jayson_firestorm points out, in some of the later episodes they milked his wackiness a bit and began to push out the shrewd businessman angle in favour of a loveable dunderhead character. This resulted in some hilarious scenes (including the infamous pet-killing scene from "Windfall") but had a negative effect on the character that Moffat and Paul Reynolds had built up in the earlier series. Still, our glimpse into Colin's more serious side in "Something Terrible" was one of the most brilliant pieces of character writing in the entire series as he struggled against the image he had created for himself in an attempt to convince everyone that he really needed help. The touching scene in which, confronted with the terrible truth Colin pleads "I can't cope with this" is a series highpoint.

As for jayson_firestorm's comments about liking Kenny being controversial, doesn't everyone love Kenny? I admit that when I was young I missed the subtleties of the character and only really remembered him for occasionally saying "bloody" on CITV, but watching the DVDs back I totally loved his character. A laid back Mr Nice who wants to please everybody and occasionally interjects with brilliantly witty lines that could even steal the thunder from Spike and Linda's quickfire banter. He was also brilliantly played by Lee Ross. I missed him during the final two series.

The other character that stood out after rewatching was Lynda. I never liked her much when I was young (except I had a small crush on Julia Sawahala) but now I've grown up I really appreciate her biting cruelty. As Steven Moffat himself says in one of the commentaries, she was the best character to write for because she could pretty much get away with anything since she was exactly as vile as she seemed to be. It's great to see a character like Lynda get away with immoral acts with absolutely no comeuppance(see the end of "Friends Like These" for a good example). Julia Sawahala got better at playing her with each series.

Worst character? It has to be Sarah (surprise suprise). I was never a fan of Kelda Holmes school play style of acting that sounded like she was just reading out the lines and Steven Moffat never seemed to know quite what to do with her. She got mostly serious story lines, although Moffat attempted to introduce a character trait involving her being unlucky with boyfriends which never really seemed convincing. It was sort of tacked onto her character in the later series. In most TV series with a lot of main characters, there is always one that the writer seems to struggle with more than the rest and Sarah was undoubtedly that character on Press Gang.

The other character that never worked for me was Julie but only in the last two series when she returned. She was fine in the first series as the airheaded girl from the graphics department, then she suddenly returned as a completely different character. The explanation for this is also given by Steven Moffat on a DVD commentary. When Lucy Benjamin was available to return and they needed a replacement for Lee Ross, Moffat simply threw all continuity out of the window and, by his own admission, gave Julie all of the character traits of Sam from series two.

Aside from those two characters, I also found Tiddler to be a bit dull mostly due to underdevelopment. She was virtually pushed out of the series as it went on and when Moffat tried to give her a lead story in 'The Week and Pizza', the result was one of the worst episodes of the lot.

Of those I haven't mentioned, Spike was obviously a strong character. His Groucho-style wisecracks were often inspired but sometimes annoying and I greatly preffered Spike as the series went on and his character was fleshed out and given real heart. He lost that slightly unconvincing "badboy" act after the first series and ended up being the main thrust behind many of the most moving storylines including "The Rest of My Life" and "Love and War". Dexter Fletcher still managed to give some great performances despite the dodgy American accent he was forced to attempt at the last minute and his accent actually improved throughout the 5 series. It also allowed Moffat to insert some hilarious in-jokes ("Don't worry Spike, we'll get a real American to play you" and "I thought you were from Birmingham").

Frazz worked best in the early series before his voice became deeper and he stopped really doing anything. The horoscopes schtik was great but it could only last so long and after that Moffat struggled to find storylines for the character, who was inexplicably promoted to having a picture on the title sequence despite having what was obviously a supporting role. The two Frazz episodes "Picking Up the Pieces" and "UnXpected" are both weak and Moffat seemed to lose sight of the original character he created, dropping the loveable half-wit angle in favour of a terminally apathetic non-entity.

Having said all that, I rarely find myself thinking "that character is so weak" when watching a Press Gang episode. The scripts and the cast generally carried the weaker aspects of the series and covered up the cracks brilliantly. Press Gang is the sort of sophisticated children's show we will probably never see the like of again; a brilliantly written comedy/drama that is just as enjoyable (if not more so) for adult audiences.

reply

I'm gonna have to side with the Sarah-bashers here. No disrespect to Kelda Holmes, but she delivered her lines like she had cotton-wool in her mouth. It didn't help that Sarah was a relatively colourless character who got stuck with the more dry lines in every script. I kinda liked Sam, but Julie was annoying, especially when she got a 180-degree personality-change and replaced Kenny in the last season.

I haven't got anything against any of the other characters though. They were all great.

reply

When I was young and watched the show when it was first on (I was way too young to be watching, but loved the way the show didn't assume its audience 'was a backward three year old with the attention span of a gold fish', as Lynda would say)...

I always wanted to be Lynda - I wanted to start my own newspaper and wished someone would start a Junior Gazette in my town! And I always liked Kenny, though as others have said, didn't appreciate the subtleties of his character till watching the re-runs at a later age.

Least favourite - a toss up between Frazz and Tidler. I just can't get past Tidler's wardrobe - I mean, I know it was the 80s but really...and Frazz I just wanted to slap around the face, but I guess that was the point. I also really went off Colin, one of my early faves, in the later series when he became just plain annoying.

And what about minor characters...how about a young Sadie Frost as Jenny Elliot?? I really disliked Raymond Adams, as wooden as Sarah at times. But did like Mr Sullivan.

reply

But did like Mr Sullivan.


Mr. Sullivan was a good example of how well-shaded the characters were...I mean, sometimes he came across like a stodgy authoritarian figure, other times he was the voice of reason and near-parental confidante for the kids. Just about all of the characters you could never really peg. Frazz could be dopey and a slack-off, yet occasionally show moments of insight and nobility. Kenny was perpetually seen as the nice guy, yet there were times when he was clearly frustrated by his own niceness and other people's perceptions of him (and his departure in the final season really did hurt the show, IMO). Spike, for all his cocky self-assurance and bravado, was probably the most sensitive and compassionate member of the team. Lynda always took the moral high-ground, but Stephen Moffatt would leave it up to us to decide whether or not she was justified in doing so. I guess Colin could get annoying, but I think that his was the most impenetrable personality of all of them...Very rarely did he let his defences down. I would argue that the characters who weren't as well-developed either didn't have enough episodes (Sam, Tiddler), didn't get enough good lines (Sarah) or were too-hastily conceived (Julie).

reply

My memory is a bit hazy, but Colin and Spike used to crack me up, albeit for completely different reasons. I recall Tiddler being somewhat witty, and Kenny, despite his general chilled-outness was a great source of dry wit. I was always of two minds about Lynda. On one hand, I admired her intellect and gumption, not to mention the way she and Spike bounced off each other, but if I actually knew anyone like her, I'd get tired of her bossiness pretty quickly.

reply

I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't like Sarah!! She was a very flat and emotionless performer. I do think that having a dull character helped the show though, because it made the other characters all the more vivid. And she did have her funny moments, like when Spike was trying to teach her how to be mean.

I actually liked Julie. Even though she was totally different when she came back (by the writer's own admission), I don't care. I think she worked well. She was an adequate replacement, even if she was no Kenny (they did acknowledge that on screen - "You would have told Kenny.")

Didn't like Sam much. Not very interesting.

Favourite character has definately got to be Lynda. Sorry for the obvious choice, but the show would have been nothing without that character - played so well by Julia S. Extremely funny, very hateable, but sympathetic at the same time.

reply

I used to have a crush on Sam when I was a kid. Watching it now, I like the way that the viewer isn't given a great deal of information about her, yet so many people somehow came to the conclusion that she was meant to be some kind of slut.

reply

She doesn't get a lot of time developping or even exploring her character, but what we do get it pretty clear. Like the time she was dating three guys and called them "6 o'clock, 7 o'clock and 8 o'clock". Yeah, she's a saint :p

reply

I always thought of her as being more manipulative than promiscuous. One of those attractive girls who gives a guy all the right signals in a club to score free drinks off him, then moves onto her next victim, leaving some poor bastard with an empty wallet and blue balls.

To the person who said Colin never let his defenses down, I'm still undecided about that. His buffoonery and greed might have been an act to conceal the real Colin, at least partially, but it's a bit more amusing to think that he really is that uncomplicated.

I'm not sure about Sarah. She could have been either the victim of lazy writing, or a deliberate straight person to the funnier characters.

reply

Spike is my absolute favourite character, followed closely by Lynda and then Colin.

My least favourite is definitely Sarah, no doubt about that. She was just dull and her monotone voice grated on me. Acting wise, Kelda Holmes was definitely the weak link (especially when compared to Julia Sawalha) and I wasn't sorry at all when she left. She's possibly the only main character in a Steven Moffat script that I didn't like. I do think that she was intended as the straight character (and not as a result of lazy writing) but I think Moffat went overboard in that respect.

reply

For me, it can only be Spike. His one-liners and jokes can have me in stitches. They are so snappy and fantastically witty. But, it was great to see him when he's serious, when he is speaking his mind without a hint of humour, particularly in "Yesterday's News", an episode with a truly gut-wrenching ending. Dexter Fletcher definitely plays Spike to perfection, and I love his accent in this show.

I also love Colin, because he is almost completely comedic with hardly any morals. There were so many situations when you'd think Colin would actually show a bit of kindness and compassion, but all he can think about is money, but it's funny. So what a shock to see Colin become a human in the stunning "Something Terrible" storyline. That episode completely stunned me as we saw a side to Colin that was wholly different to anything I could have expected of him.

As for my least favourite character, I'd have to say Sarah, but that's mainly because she isn't as funny or engaging as the other characters, not because she's badly acted or dislikable. She often seems preoccupied and is almost always completely serious, therefore I don't think she's as noticeable as the comics in the news team.

"Metal Gear! It can't be..."

reply

Wow, poor Sarah. Nobody likes her.

reply

Yeah, when I saw all the negative comments about her, I almost felt guilty about adding one of my own!

reply

I just hope Kelda Holmes doesn't visit these boards. These posts are enough to make her cry.

reply

Sarah was pretty dull. But the only character I really couldn't stand was Julie (Lucy Benjamin). My favourites were probably Colin, Frazz and Lynda, although most of the characters had their moments of genius. What a great show this was!

reply

Well I'll speak up for Sarah, I thought she was a great character and really well acted by Kelda.

I always prefer intelligent characters and Sarah was the most intelligent of the whole team. The way she developed as a character was interesting to watch, starting off totally overwhelmed by Lynda but learning to use her skills to stand up to her.

She was acknowledged as the best writer on the team and when she interviewed Suggs or wrote the article at the party or when she worked out about the bomber and got him to confess, they were some great episodes.

She wasn't as sassy as Lynda & Spike. But you can't have a series where everyone is the same or you'd just have another American Teen series

Press Gang was to be applauded for the range of characters they included, and Sarah was an important part of that range.

I missed her when she left, although I applauded the character's reasons for going and her ability to go

Steve

reply

Favorite character---Kenny. He was sweet, he held his own against Lynda (not easy to do), he could be very funny, and I felt the show lost a lot of it's heart when he left.

Least favorite---Sam. I've never really cared for Gabrielle Anwar much. I'd forgotten she was even in this until I just recently rewatched it. Her character was very flat and one dimensional, I thought. She didn't make as interesting a foil as Julie did, running graphics.



We're not playing Yellow Car.--Martin
You're always playing Yellow Car.--Arthur

reply

Favorite was Colin, Spike, Tiddler

Least favorite was Julie I just never cared for the character much

reply