Spatz S1E9 (1990) - FULL EPISODE

Clowning Around. TJ's idea of holding children's parties in the restaurant goes down better with head office than it does with Karen. But would she really resort to sabotaging sweet little Henny's big day just to make a point? Meanwhile, Stanley can only tell his workmates so much about his girlfriend because it turns out he's never actually met her - but all that is about to change. This episode was originally broadcast on Wednesday, 18th April, 1990. There's a sudden huge ramp up in quality here in my opinion, and I think I'm going to have to declare this to be the funniest instalment of the first series. Karen turning into a cartoon villain, daft lines such as "Who told you to use your own initiative?" delivered in all sincerity, the boys all subtly leaving the girls to do the heavy lifting from 13:30, Stanley's completely unnecessary silly visual gag around 11:41, the perfect timing of closing the curtains... It all adds up to a great episode, and a foregleam of what was to come in the second series when any constraints of being a drama were jettisoned in favour of Spatz going full sitcom. As for the matter of the mystery girlfriend, I like how everyone sticks their oar in and offers completely contradictory relationship advice based on their own selfish viewpoints, yet no-one thinks to mention love or anything that really matters. The concept of cyber dating was practically unheard of back in 1990, but the subject is broached very well here in a way that doesn't make it seem completely alien. Of course, the final punchline is perfectly funny, clever, innocent, years ahead of its time, and pre-dates that famous 'no-one knows you're a dog' cartoon by a fair bit - only now, with the rise of the internet behind us and associated knowledge of the very worst that it can bring out in people, it unfortunately brings to mind far more sinister matters today than anyone could ever have imagined. A pity, but that's the world we live in. Speaking of which: Chris Langham. Credit where it's due, he puts in probably the funniest guest performances of the series here as Marvin the Magnificent, and was later excellent in The Thick of It, having been positively stellar in People Like Us. But, um, if you don't know the issue I'm awkwardly skirting around here, do yourself a favour and don't look him up. On the other hand, it's great to see sweet precious Jade Magri starring as an absolutely ghastly little horror, a few years before she landed the regular part of Ellie in series four of Mike and Angelo (another CITV comedy from the pens of Lee Pressman and Grant Cathro, of course). Overall, I can't praise this episode enough. Minor question: can anyone enlighten me as to what Dexter shouts between 16:10 to 16:15? Part of it sounds X-rated. Stay tuned at the beginning and end for some Children's ITV continuity presented by Jeanne Downs, who is joined by Rosie Marcel and Richard Hanson, young stars of Enid Blyton's The Castle of Adventure. You may recognise Rosie as Jac from Holby City (except she's smiling here) - she also played one of the little psychos in Press Gang around this time, and I think I may have spotted her in a queue in an earlier episode of Spatz, but I could be completely wrong about that. Many thanks to Joe for lending me this tape. (To the best of my knowledge, the contents of this video have never been available commercially anywhere in the world. Please also note that I don't monetise any of my uploads. Nevertheless, if you are a copyright holder and have an objection, please don't hesitate to contact me.)