***
One
of the truly great shows of the late 80s and early 90s, yet in Australia
at least, there was never much 'hype' about it. Despite this, nearly
every teen I knew (and this is referring to the entire state where i live)
watched, and loved it.
This award winning BBC program was set in a newsroom (firstly a school
newspaper setup, but after graduation the team went out independently),
this romantic drama & comedy was full of brilliant story lines, comic
elements and sweet romances, and had a simple base of realism which added
to the attraction of the show.
.
Lynda: "This is life.
No guaranteed happy endings."
.
However, the true genius of the show was the war of romantic wits between
the editor Lynda Day (played brilliantly by Julia Sawalha), and one of
her co-workers, the once rebel Spike Thompson (the cool Dexter Fletcher).
.
Spike: "I guess you're
looking for the bitch editor from hell, right?"
Kenny: "I never call
her that, she likes it."
.
Through the entire series we see how they fight their attraction by constantly
trying to outwit the other, yet stick up for each other when the other
is not around.
.
Lynda: "You and me
Spike, we're held together by a force even stronger than
true love."
Spike: "Which is?"
Lynda: "We both want
the last word."
Spike: "Yeah, well
I don't have to answer to that ."
Lynda: "See what
I mean?"
.
Because of being so stubborn though, they nearly lose each other
many times, but their love is resolved in the end - well, "I think"!
.
Julie: "Why don't
you just tell Spike you give in?"
Lynda: "Because I'd
rather die than let Spike win anything ever."
Julie: "Why?"
Lynda: "You know
what he's like, he's so competitive."
* * *
Spike: "Why do I stick
with that woman?"
Julie: "Because you're
completely obsessively madly in love with her."
Spike: "Oh there's
gotta be more to it than that."
.
Any romantic who missed this show does not know what they lost. It
was funny, truthful and realistic. As far as the romance was concerned,
the show took it from the pair's rocky beginning when Lynda reluctantly
hired a bad-boy Spike to work on the school newspaper, to the point where
*everyone* in the newsroom could see they were in love but were just plain
scared to admit it - well, maybe not scared, just down right stubborn.
Spike took the first step though, but Lynda was too hard to deal with and
she ended up driving him back to his native home, America, a couple of
times. As the saying goes though, you don't realise what you've got until
you lose it, and in tears she utters the words...
.
"Why do I get everything
in my whole stupid life wrong."
.
Fortunately for her
it was not too late.
.
Spike: "Have we gotten
to the stage in out relationship where I can't talk
to another woman without you trashing an expensive restaurant?"
Lynda: "Great, isn't
it?"
.
I guess it's pretty obvious by now that I would give the romance and chemistry
in this show a definite
out
of 5!
* * *
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Written material copyrighted by Sarah
1997.