Press Gang (1989–94)
Last night, I was thinking about the television characters that have meant the most to me over the years. I made a list, off the top of my head, without too much thought, and was surprised to find that of the characters—all originating in on television, no adaptations from other media—almost all of the characters from the 20th century were male and most from the present millennium were female. I have no idea what that means about me, my taste, or television as a whole.
Lynda Day, is one of the outliers, and this is one of those cases where I’ve been somewhat arbitrary in selecting the character, because you can’t really divorce her from either the actor who breathed life into the role, Julia Sawalha, or the character’s context in Press Gang (1989–94) created by Bill Moffat and written by Steven Moffat.
I can’t imagine why a relentless workaholic with a one-track mind, an inability to acknowledge her own personal life or those of the people who work for her because a school forces them to, and a prickly demeanor to hide her own insecurities which she can articulate if necessary with the detachment of an over-achieving (and likely suicidal) doctor attempting self-surgery because she thinks every one else is incompetent would appeal to me.
