Movie: P’tang, Yang, Kipperbang

 

P’tang, Yang, Kipperbang is a movie made for Channel Four Television in the UK and broadcast in 1982 as part of its First Love series. It is a simple coming-of-age film set in a grammar school in the outer London suburbs in 1948. It is the story of Alan Duckworth, a young cricket-obsessed boy, and his first kiss with Ann Lawton.

In one scene Alan is called from his gym lesson to the headmaster’s study. He protests that he should be allowed to change from his thin cotton shorts into his school uniform but his objection falls on deaf ears.

In the headmaster’s study he touches his toes and waits for the first stroke of the cane to land. To distract himself from the pain to come he imagines a radio cricket commentary in his head. (Thinking of something pleasant during a beating seems to be a common ploy among schoolboys globally. Spud, the South African boy, did something similar.)

Caning in English schools was commonplace in the 1940s and boys returning from the headmaster’s study would be interrogated by friends, “Was it a corporal or a sergeant? They meant was it two stipes or three?

Incidentally, the title phrase comes from a password used by members of Alan’s gang.

The movie which is also known as Kipperbang is rarely rebroadcast but it is available to buy as a DVD

 

Picture and movie credits: Channel 4 Television

 

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