Movie: P’tang, Yang, Kipperbang (revisited).

 

We’ve already met the movie P’tang, Yang, Kipperbang here. But here’s a chance to see a longer version of the scene.

The movie was made for Channel Four Television in the UK and broadcast in 1982 as part of its First Love series. It is a gentle 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 this scene Duckworth is in gym class with a tyrannical PE teacher, (who at one time seemed to be all the rage. For another example, see Birth of a Nation here).

Duckworth is called to the headmaster’s study and reluctant to appear in just his gym shorts, so he asks permission to go put on a pair of underpants. The PE teacher refuses.

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.)

Duckworth is played by John Albasiny and the headmaster by Robert Urquhart.

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

 

Picture and movie credits: Enigma Television for Channel 4 Television

 

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