SWALK (Channel 4, 1983)
This is a home-made drama series from the early days of Channel 4 that I don’t remember watching at time, but seemed interesting from the description, and I managed to find all of the episodes on YouTube. Throughout the 80s, there were a lot of weekly magazines aimed at teenage girls (I remember that my sister used to read Just Seventeen for a while, and a few others as well).
There has been much debate about how influential the articles can be on girls in their early-teens, and this was a show that was based around that. SWALK starred Amanda, a 13-year-old schoolgirl who buys lots, including Love Life, which is her favourite. She likes to read the all of the articles, especially the agony aunt column called Patti’s Problem Page, and she just about takes all of her advice to readers as gospel.
She is at the age when she has started to become interested in boys. Whenever there is some trouble in Amanda’s life (which happens a lot), agony aunt Patti (who looks suspiciously like Sybil Fawlty) appears in a circle to offer a piece of (not usually useful) advice. It’s fair to say that her older sister Katherine is fond of boys as well, because she is about to get married, and this leads to a lot of bickering with her parents.
As the episodes progress, Katherine not only gets married, but also gets pregnant, and gives birth (they grow up so fast). Amanda is still frustrated by school, but she has now become an auntie herself, and she soon develops a crush on a nice boy and everything. What should she do? Well Patti has the answer. By the end though, she grows out of this, wanting to do things her way, and Patti and her like all end up in the bin.
Now I’ve never been a regular reader of any of these magazines myself (partly because I’ve never been a teenage girl), but the thing that attracted me to this was that this was all presented in a rather innovative style. Some of the scenes were designed to look the photo stories that appeared in the magazines. I was reminded a little of the drama Jangles, combining early-80s social commentary with some nice Electropop.
Also making a brief appearance in an episode was the great Philip Elsmore (this being a Thames production might’ve helped), which I will always approve of. There were six episodes of SWALK in one series. As well as being shown on Channel 4, they were repeated on ITV (in the Thames region at least) in 1986, and there was also a book published as well. There hasn’t been a VHS or DVD release as far as I know.
ADAM'S NOSTALGIC MEMORIES 