First impressions of Gazette are a typically (for the era) great dynamic title sequence, with Alan Moorhouse's urgently groovy "Stop Press" theme. It isn't on youtube but the next scene is:
As can be seen from the clip it is a bit stagey at times, some of the dialogue is trying really hard to be fast-paced and "with it" and ends up as terminally uncool as that phrase implies. The passage of time makes such light flaws charming rather than excruciating (I find) - perhaps the mere fact of watching archive television presupposes a certain generosity on the viewer's behalf, a preparedness to work a little harder to find the good in something, critical faculties slightly dulled by gratitude at being able to watch the thing at all.
ANYWAY. The degree to which Susan Jackson is cheerfully complicit in her own objectification is interesting, there's a bunch of casually sexist dialogue that would never cut it on television these days - it's taken as read that all the blokes want to bed her and her job is to fend them off with badinage. I understand why we're now so sensitive about portraying this sort of stuff - but at the same time I must say I enjoyed seeing this earthy, robust attitude to matters of sexual attraction. Something has been lost as well as gained in the move to more "acceptable" portrayals.
Generally the episode ambles along in a more than agreeable manner, it would be wrong to call it firebrand drama but it is substantial, well-made and fun. The team of regulars are pretty quickly established (with the exception of Bill Spence who seems there merely to make up the numbers but may yet have his day in the sun).
I realised somewhere during Act III that I probably wasn't meant to be sure if I liked Hadleigh or not - the possibility hadn't occurred to me as I was so accustomed to watching him dash about the place as the Gentleman Hero. The final scene where he squares off with Frank Walters is totally contrived, but extremely sweet in the way it determinedly assets that this mild conflict between two essentially reasonable men is the stuff of FUCKING HIGH STAKES DRAMA. Their last exchange may as well be "Shall we go to series then?" / "You can bloody well bet your life on it!" Chink of Scotch glasses, cue titles.
It's great to be back in Westdale, watching the entire run of Hadleigh last year was a huge pleasure and it's wonderful to see (and to be able to see) the character's early days. It was quite the rush of warm familiarity when the Melford set first appears. I remember thinking that Hadleigh's romance with the Gillian Wray character in Season 1 of Hadleigh came from absolutely nowhere, will be interesting to see if this is backgrounded at all in Gazette.
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