Trivia / Press Gang

• Breakthrough Hit: For Steven Moffat.
• Creator Backlash: As noted under Executive Meddling, Steven Moffat has spoken out against the decision to make Spike a Fake American.
• Creator Breakdown: During production of series two, Steven Moffat was having an unhappy personal life after the break-up of his first marriage. His wife's new lover was represented in the episode "The Big Finish?" by the character Brian Magboy (Simon Schatzberger), a name inspired by Brian: Maggie's boy. Moffat brought in the character so that all sorts of unfortunate things would happen to him, such as having a typewriter dropped on his foot.
• Executive Meddling: Spike was originally written as English, until producer Sandra C. Hastie felt that an American character would enhance the chance of overseas sales. Steven Moffat said that he isn't "sure [that] lumbering Dexter with that accent was a smart move."
• Fake American: Dexter Fletcher's American accent, introduced in order to give the show greater marketability in the US. Later lampshaded by Colin: when scheming to sell the story of Spike and Lynda's love life to a TV company, he promises "Don't worry, Spike, we'll get a genuine American to play you!" This was so effective that when Dexter categorically did NOT present the third series of GamesMaster which didn't happen, ever reverted to his real Cockney accent, he was accused of putting that accent on to sound cool.
• Fake Australian: Gabrielle Anwar as Sam. However, she doesn't even attempt an accent: the only indications of her being Australian are the Aboriginal flag on the window of the room for the graphics department (of which she is the head) and her once using the distinctive Australian slang term 'drongo'.
• Post-Script Season: At one point Series 4 was intended to be the last, with plans for a follow-up TV movie aimed at an older audience called Deadline, which would be set after a Time Skip. A full script exists, but it was not produced after ITV decided to make a fifth series. There were several attempts to remount Deadline" later in the nineties, but none came to fruition.
• Spared by the Cut: "The Last Word" was originally meant to end with Spike dying, although this was reportedly due to a miscommunication between Steven Moffat and Dexter Fletcher's agent leading Moffat to wrongly believe Fletcher would not be available for Series 4.
• Star-Making Role: For Julia Sawalha. Although she would gain a larger following in Absolutely Fabulous.
• Throw It In!: According to the season 1 DVD Commentary, Spike's habit of wearing sunglasses indoors was because whenever Dexter Fletcher didn't get enough sleep, he looked his real (twenty-something) age, which makeup couldn't disguise. So they had to cover his eyes instead!
• What Could Have Been
  • Lee Ross was unable to take part in Series 4 (which was filmed back-to-back with Series 3) due to needing to keep his schedule free for another role (which he ended up not getting), and it was hoped he would be able to return for the fifth series, but schedule clashes again stopped this from happening.
  • The original edit of the final episode, "There Are Crocodiles", considerably over-ran and around 9 minutes of material had to be cut out. A slightly extended (but not as long as the first version) cut was screened at a Press Gang convention in 1994.
• Working Title: The Norbridge Files.
• Write Who You Know: Steven Moffat has said that Lynda Day was partly based on the show's "ball-breaking" producer, Sandra C. Hastie.

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