This sweet, breezy, coming of age/first kiss movie follows the trials and tribulations of Alan "Quack-Quack" Duckworth, a likable young teenager going through his first crush. Set in post WWII Britian, Alan has his public love of Cricket, and his secret puppy-love for classmate Ann Laughton, who barely tolerates his existence. And just as Baseball (or Cricket) can throw you a curve ball, Alan gets his curve ball in the the form of an iron-clad opportunity to kiss the girl of his dreams. But will "Quack-Quack" be able to step up to the plate and fulfill his dream? Well, get a hold of this little gem of a movie and find out. Great supporting cast of his Teacher and Headmaster, his schoolyard chums, and Tommy the Groundskeeper , whom Alan admires, but whom might throw Alan yet another curve ball. All in all, an entertaining movie that I highly recommend.
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norman-42-84375817 March 2012I missed this when it was originally shown on Channel 4 but heard so much about it at the time that when I found it on DVD from one of the mail order companies I ordered a copy. I was not disappointed by this little gem. It has the authentic feel of the times it portrayed although in many cases boys' and girls' schools were not combined until the advent of comprehensives many years later.
This is a true rights of passage movie in the same way as "The Summer of 42". The difference is subtle but films like Kes are coming of age movies where the subject attains an emotional maturity by becoming passionate about an interest.
So far as the title and language the boys use to each other goes, this has long been used as a form of cohesion between members of a group and a dividing line between generations. Some of you may be old enough to remember Cookie from 77 Sunset Strip. He was a hipster who did grunt work on the street for two private detectives. Now and again a situation would occur where the bosses realised their phones were being tapped by the bad guys and would say "Scramble it Cookie". Cookie would then go into the verbal jive of the time, which we all understood, of course but left the villains looking nonplussed at the receiver. Take a simple word like 'Good' and see how this has changed over time. In the days of Elvis it was 'hip', 'cool' seemed to last a few generations through. When the Beatles came along it was 'fab' until the Mods changed it into 'maximum' before it morphed into 'mega'. I am going from memory here so there are probably a few in between I have missed.
When the girls voted on their choice of dishiest guy in the class, our hero Duckworth was the nerd left standing against the fence after everybody else had picked their teams. Geoffrey wins the poll and is making a play for heroine Ann. "I don't do P'tang yang kipperbang" he says with disdain but when he tries to be sophisticated by saying to Ann " Manyana doesn't come soon enough for me" he just comes over as a pretentious Pratt.
Early in the film we see Alan Duckworth laying in bed praying to God to let him kiss Ann. Even though it is obvious he also has sexual thoughts, a kiss is all he wants from her. Later, when the boys are playing cricket by the canal there is a very knowledgeable conversation about prostitutes. They discuss how much they charge and that some want extra money for kissing and some just don't kiss at all. This, they rightly decide, is because kissing brings an emotional element into the otherwise functional tasks they perform. There is a very good piece of psychology towards the end of the film when Ann feels rejected by the class nerd. If the class nerd is passing her up then what hope is there for her. When she feels no longer in control, she leaves her comfort zone with Geoffrey to chase after Duckworth. She then finds him interesting because he has a real point of view, in that he wants an emotional relationship first and a physical relationship second which shows a maturity above his years. Ann is warming to him but does Quack Quack Duckworth seize the main chance when he has it in his hands? You will have to watch the film to find out. -
What makes this film worth a watch is the considerably effective evocation of a nation in transformation, and of the smaller human story at its heart. A plummy Home Service voice-over from cricket commentator John Arlott describes the turbulent inner emotions of Alan 'Quack-Quack' Duckworth as he makes the fraught transition from childhood to post-war adolescence.
One of the film's pleasures is it's comforting nostalgia for times past. Traffic-free Suburban streets, roses in the front gardens, the pervading smell of creosote and carbolic is well suggested here, and there are some great observations on the passing of the old order (The School Headmaster laments on his war-time romance with English teacher Miss Land, consigned to history now that there are younger men back from the war) and a knowing mockery of Quack-Quack's naive belief in post-War Festival of Britain-era optimism, with its United Nations, Teas-Maids, Esperanto and Cricket.
The school setting is a big plus for all viewers of a certain age; the cruelties of children, the awakening sexual urges, life's great mysteries and the ennui of a summer term in a losing battle with the approaching holidays. The adult world, as observed by writer Jack Rosenthal, is represented by either up-tight pedants and martinets, for example Miss Land, or as weak hypocrites, like Tommy, Alan's hero of such theatres of human conflict as Dunkirk, El Alamein, The Battle of the Bulge and Burma, who turns out to be a deserter. The climactic end-of-term play is one of the most banal ever, rightly jeered by the schoolkids, but the adult world they're aping is banal too, as Alan belatedly comes to realise.
Daydreamer Alan's infatuation with Ann and his thwarted attempts to secure a kiss is easy and enjoyable to identify with, but generally the girls come off rather badly: Ann rejects her conservative suitor and is herself rejected by the object of her curiosity, Alan. Miss Land is freed from one complication, only to be (we are led to believe) doomed to repeat it because of her unchecked sexual appetites.
The writing is engaging, the direction assured, and while the acting is a little TV-drama standard, the stand-outs are Alison Steadman's prim but voracious Estelle Land and Alan's schoolmates, Abbo and Shaz. My favourite line comes during a canalside game of cricket, when an over-excited Quack-Quack enthusiastically hits the ball for six to the watery boundary and a collective groan goes up from the outfielders. Abbo dryly observes 'We're going to have to move that canal'. Sublime. -
alan99719 January 2007An enjoyable movie, without a doubt, and very evocative of both its era and that very particular stage in any boy's 'rites of passage'. But I have to say that having read the very positive comments here, I was a bit disappointed. The period was captured, but the plot was desperately thin. The whole thing revolves around the most egregious bit of miscasting in the history of school plays. The idea that quack quack would ever be chosen to play not only one of only three star turns, but a philanderer, is risible. And without that, nada. The sub-plots bore no relation that I could see to the main plot - all of them could be removed in their entirety without in any way affecting the main story - which surely suggests a fundamental flaw. When all your sub-plots look like padding, you know a central idea is being stretched beyond its limits. Nevertheless, it's a benign movie with its heart in the right place, there are some fine performances, and you just get the feeling that everyone involved felt deflated at the final 'cut!' That good feeling permeates the film. And that has to count for something. A flawed really quite good movie. 7 out of 10.
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There is a great danger when you watch a film that had had such a profound affect on you the first time around , that 20 years later , it wont hold the same magic as it did before. I must admit i wasnt expecting it to be as good as i remembered but a was pleasently suprised. P'tang Yang Kipperbang is still as fantastic as i remember it when i was a 12 year old .This film has a certain type of brilliance that not many films possess. It is engrossing , it is briliantly acted and best of all it makes me feel like a kid again and there isnt many things that can do that. John Albasiny and Abigail Cruttenden's rolls in this film are 1st class and i had forgotten how good they were until now. I urge any parent of teenagers to sit them down and watch this and see if it has the same affect on them as it did on me. P'TANG YANG KIPPERBANG EEHHH! 10 out of 10.
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raypdaley18226 May 2006I remember watching this 1st time around on Channel 4 way back in the early 80's. To those who asked exactly what P'tang Yang Kipperbang means, you weren't watching the film closely enough or paying attention at all.
The main boy and his friends all used made up words to substitute for normal every day words so PTYK was obviously something they made up for hello and goodbye. Listen to him when he is in the chip shop!
The girl and Whittaker had their "Manyana, Mayana - Mayana's not soon enough for me". You clearly heard Whittaker say with great indignation "I don't do P'Tang Yang Kipperbang!".
To the person who asked about the boxing glove on the bed? All the scenes of the main boy in bed talking to God, wasn't it obvious when he was talking about "thinking about that" he was referring to masturbating. Wearing boxing gloves in bed was an old public school method of stopping boys who were frantic or avid nocturnal masturbators.
I had forgotten about Alison Steadmans relationship with the school groundsman, the fact that he was a deserter and her pregnancy scare. I did remember the play but I thought he kissed her hand or kissed her on the cheek.
It was nice to see early appearances by Eric Richard playing a road-worker (who would go on to find fame in The Bill as Sgt. Bob Cryer) and Peter Dean (who would go on to mega fame playing Pete Beale in Eastenders!) -
moamen271 March 2005Although i don't like cricket at all and i have seen this movie 13 years ago, I still think it is one of the best coming-of-age movies ..i remember the day i returned home from my school and sat down to have my lunch, I saw the opening titles of that movie and then....i was so immersed in it that i felt i was there, it really affected me personally. i still remember how i felt when i first saw it ,i felt that the poor boy was a friend of mine, going through the same adolescent experience we were having in those days. what i really liked about that movie is the main theme of a "shy" boy fantasizing about "kissing" his dream girl, no offense but if that was an American movie, you would certainly see-at a certain point, mainly climax- the "shy" boy "making love" to his girl, and i really can't grasp this contradicting concepts till now...i have a simple request ,if anyone knows how to get this movie on a DVD by mail ,please let me know cause i need a shot of memories..Thanks
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Prismark1015 November 2022I was around the age of the the schoolkids in P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang when the movie came out.
In fact we could tell who watched the movie on Channel 4 as they kept repeating the catchphrase at school. Two lads exactly and I was not one of them.
This is a charming but slight tale of kids reaching an age where sex is always on the mind but it is not too far away from the adult's nether regions as well.
Alan Duckworth known as 'Quack Quack' to his friends is 14 years old and daydreams of kissing pretty Ann Lawton in his class. She is popular but ignores him. However his chance might come around as both of them have been picked to perform in the school play.
Writer Jack Rosenthal and director Michael Apted both cut their teeth on Coronation Street. There is an element of slice of life realism about it despite Alan's ambitions with Ann being shown like a game of cricket.
My favourite part was listening to John Arlott's commentary which was an important component of the movie.
Watching it again I realised that I didn't quite get the adults story at the time. Miss Land nearly falling pregnant with the groundsman Tommy. She might be prim in the classroom but was always passionate out of it. During the war she had to make do with the older men such as the headmaster.
Tommy tells Alan about stories of his time during the war but it turns out he was a deserter. He managed to charm both Alan and Miss Landy. -
sumocat2 February 1999Postwar England, the dawn of the "atomic age". Yet, the worries of a young schoolboy yearning to experience his first "kiss" cannot be derailed by something as inconsequential as THE BOMB. This was a delightful if not educational look at young love from the vantage point of an adolescent male and his world of the
1940's. Free of political correctness and preachy messages, this film exposes the viewer to the world that only the mind (and
hormones) of a young teenager can create. Wonderful subplots
maintain character interest ala "Gregory's Girl", and plenty
of well blocked shots help keep up the imagery of this era. This is a very good story for anyone, young or old, who has
ever been in love, or ever wanted to be. Does he ever get his wish? Watch it and see. -
jboothmillard9 July 2021I first heard about this TV made movie from the documentary Back to the 80s with Lenny Henry, a celebration of the best programmes from the 1980s on Channel 4. It was listed at number 20 (of 20), and it was the second film ever shown on the channel, so I was glad when it was broadcast and I could watch it, directed by Michael Apted (Coal Miner's Daughter, Gorillas in the Mist, Extreme Measures, The World Is Not Enough). Basically, set in 1948, fourteen-year-old Alan Duckworth, know to his friends as "Quack Quack" (John Albasiny) is a socially awkward schoolboy with an obsession with cricket. Alan daydreams throughout his day, he makes little academic progress, and his inner thoughts are spoken by a Cricket Commentator (John Arlott). Besides cricket, Alan's other obsession is Ann Lawton (Abigail Cruttenden, sister of comedian Hal Cruttenden), a girl in his class who he is infatuated with. While his friends are all interested in sex, which Alan refers to as "the other thing", he is purely focused on kissing Ann. She is not well regarded by Alan's friends however, since she is very strait-laced. Outside of class, he befriends groundsman Tommy (Garry Cooper), who claims to be a "war hero", while making predictions about what the post-war world will be like. Among other things, Alan predicts that there will be no more wars, everyone will speak Esperanto and everyone, regardless of race or creed, will have a Teasmade. English teacher Miss Land (Alison Steadman) is preparing the students for a school play, Ann and Alan are cast as a married couple, and Alan is excited, but equally terrified, that he will be required to kiss her. The rehearsals for the play go fine, despite Alan's nerves, but each time it gets closer to the kissing scene, something interrupts it. Meanwhile, Miss Land is worried that she is pregnant with Tommy's baby, which would result in her having to resign from her job. It is later revealed, and she is relieved, that a pregnancy test is negative, while Tommy is arrested. It is revealed that he deserted the war three weeks into his service, rather than fighting at Dunkirk, El Alamein, the Battle of the Bulge and in Burma, as he claimed. On the day of the play, Alan is initially nervous on stage and other students laugh and mock him. But he slowly composes himself and gives a good performance. However, when it comes to the kissing scene, Alan shuns the opportunity and simply touches her affectionately, which upsets Miss Land. After school, Alan and Ann walk home together and talk, where he admits that he wants to kiss her, but he wants it to be for real and mean something. Ann finally gives Alan a short kiss before walking away, and Alan enters his home with a big smile on his face. Also starring Maurice Dee as Geoffrey Whitaker, Mark Brailsford as Abbo, Christopher Karallis as Shaz, Frances Ruffelle as Eunice, Robert Urquhart as Headmaster, Garry Cooper as Tommy, and the voice of Maureen Lipman as Alan's mother. Albasiny is likeable as the young lead, and Steadman is interesting as the randy teacher, it is a simple story of teenage lust, but the cricket commentary is inventive and funny, it is a pleasant, gentle, and worthwhile coming-of-age comedy-drama. Good!
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DPMay31 March 2018Through their collaborations on TV in the 1960s and 1970s, writer Jack Rosenthal and director Michael Apted had crafted a number of popular and acute studies of human character through plays, sitcoms and even episodes of Coronation Street. Little wonder then that by the 1980s when the new fourth British television channel was being planned, that these two talents should be earmarked for the first project of its film wing.
Rosenthal returns to the landscape of his own youth for this story, a middle-class British school of the 1940s. In simple terms, it is the story of a fourteen-year-old boy, Alan Duckworth, and his two great loves: a very public passion for cricket and a more private, unrequited adoration of one of his female classmates, Ann Lawton. In the transitional stage between childhood and adulthood, he is able to maintain a friendship with the school groundsman, Tommy, and discuss intelligent topics with him, yet is still something of an unruly pupil, larking about with his 'gang' friends at inappropriate moments. It is the club greeting of this gang, an obligatory exchange of the password "P'Tang, Yang, Kipperbang - uhh!" that gives this film its title, one to rank among the most bizarre in the history of cinema along with Laughing Gravy (1930) and The Film That Rises To The Surface Of Clarified Butter (1968).
Duckworth's growing infatuation with Ann seems doomed to progress no further than longing gazes across the classroom until an unexpected turn of events propels him along a course whereupon it seems inevitable that he must declare his feelings to her. However, as this is a course of action he is now being pressured into, he begins to wonder if asking God to bring him this opportunity was such a good idea after all.
But this is a Jack Rosenthal script, so although this tale of adolescence is told in a quite charming way, there is so much more going on in the film and it explores love and sex as driving forces for most of the other characters in the film also, and how it differs for each. Tommy, recently back from serving overseas during the war, is now working the land at the school and has also been 'working' Miss Land, Alan's teacher. Miss Land, rather prim and proper in class, has quite an appetite for men, and when all the young eligible ones were away fighting it is revealed that she took on older men for lovers rather than remain celibate. The boys in Alan's class have reached an age where they want sex but haven't achieved it, and thus even a claim to have groped a girl's chest over her clothes affords a boy some superior status over his peers. But even the girls seem rather obsessed too, having a poll to see which is the most desirable boy in the class. The juxtaposition of these events help to illustrate that Alan is truly motivated more by love than mere lust. And just as they also demonstrate a depth to Alan, the events also show this unexpected depth of Alan's character to Ann Lawton, who had never previously given him a second thought.
There's a top-notch cast at work here, many of them just starting out on what have turned out to be successful screen careers. Watch out for one-time Eurovision entrant Frances Ruffelle as the girl who offers out hugs for all the boys in the class.
The film is not full of action or incident and although it explores some adult themes, it is subtle rather than explicit. As a snapshot of British life just after the war, I am not sure how much this will appeal to audiences of different ages or from different cultures but as its themes are so fundamentally human, the underlying story should surely be appreciated universally. And in its approach to exploring those themes, the film is practically faultless. -
samcooklin9 April 2013P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang. Some people may perceive this film as sweet and adorable but they have to be completely (or almost) entirely mistaken. P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang is probably the most overrated stories of all time: after I watched it, I found myself wanting an hour of my life back. No need to fear however, liberation is coming, in a few decades this film will become outdated and left on a shelf to rot. Don't make the same mistake as I did: DON'T WATCH THIS FILM! Watch some good films like the Godfather trilogy (excluding number 3 which is essentially about incest), Shawshank Redemption, the Good,the Bad,the Ugly, the Dark Knight, Inception, Argo, the Untouchables, Gladiator...Don't get me started and don't waste a single brain cell on P'tang yang kipper bang. It's utter crap,
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mike-613-16118224 January 2013This really is a superb film. If you ever were that boy that suffered unrequited love when you were in your teens, particularly if you were still at school, you will totally understand what Quack Quack is going through - longing for the emotional fulfilment that the kiss will bring.
Being able to explain himself to Ann at the end of the film, and for her to understand and appreciate his point of view is something that would happen rarely in real life to someone that was no oil painting, and shows a depth of emotional maturity that sets him above his less mature friends. And Ann perhaps comes to appreciate that it isn't always enough just to be with the best looking boy, as he may not have the emotional maturity that she comes to appreciate in Alan.
It doesn't matter that there might have been some chronological bloopers (the No Cycling sign) - I can't fault this film. The post-war setting, accompanied by Arlott's perfectly weighted delivery brings a nostalgia-sized lump to the throat. There are some great lines and several funny scenes. And while the longed-for satisfaction isn't delivered to Alan at the end of the film, he has developed the maturity to have come to terms with his situation. -
Not as "simple" as the plot synopsis makes out. The lad struggles with issues such as his hopes that after the second world war there will be progress for everyone and that there will be no more wars in the future. It is a sad awakening he has to the reality of lies and deceit. Lies from the person he admires and what we the audience see as the hypocrisy of his form teacher who while preaching moral decency to the class, behaves very differently herself (i am not condemning her it is actually the hypocrisy of the times astutely observed by Jack Rosenthal the author). Still, these are deep waters among the shallows of a "simple" boy girl plot. Oh, and I have't mentioned the cricket commentary that runs through the lads mind at crucial times. If you love any ball game e.g. Baseball, you will so get it- so US do give it a go. You could well love it! Cricket lovers- well it goes without saying.
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flugluftholgate28 October 2006I was at school in the late sixties and early seventies and this film is very much how my school was. The school play where the leading actors kiss, that happened at my school. A crazy gang of lads, my school again only when we went on a cross country run we would have a smoke! 'Getting the whack', some one at my school broke in through a sky light and broke the canes! after that they were kept in a safe!!! And as for certain nocternal activities! what can I say.... The film actually came out in 1982, I remember that as it was when I bought my house and the film was showing at the same time. If you like British films and films about school, growing up and period pieces, then this is for you. Another film very much like it, 'SWALK', came out a few years before and I for one would like to see that again, also 'Kes' is in the genre. Highly recommended. (But trust me, 1982 is when it came out)
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lor_5 February 2023My review was written in February 1984 after watching the film at a Midtown Manhattan screening room.
"Kippebang" is a flat, understated attempt at romantic comedy, made for British television in 1982 as part of the "First Love" series, but virtually evaporating on the big screen. U. S. Theatrical release via UA Classics comes several months after the picture in video cassette form has been available in domestic video stores.
Writer Jack Rosenthal's consistently precious script matches the romantic problems of young adolescents (hero is 14) with those of their elders, as the English teacher (Alison Steadman) must deal with an unplanned pregnancy,l the father being the school groundskeeper (Garry Cooper).
Very thin material emphasizes running gags, most noxious of which is the kids reciting the nonsense phrase "P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang" (pic's original title in Britain, pointlessly followed by a grunt, shortened for U. S. release), as an example of the youngsters' codes and rituals.. Young cast members throw away their dialog in mumbled, naturalistic readings, reducing potential chuckles to groaners.
Plot gimmicks, generally overemphasized, include the hero Alan (John Albasiny) dreaming of his first kiss with plain classmate Ann (Abigail Gruttenden), with attempted suspense generated as he is cast in a dull school play in which he is supposed to kiss co-star Ann in the final scene.
Device of a voiceover narrator turning most events into cricket match play-by-play (representing Alan's wish-fulfillment point-of-view) is overworked, as are the frequent references back to World War II (groundskeeper is fake war hero, leading to the predictable disillusionment of the hero).
Director Michael Apted appears uncertain how to approach this material, combining the general understatement with a coy approach to vulgar issues of adolescent sexs (Alan and his two pals form the inevitable central trio of sex-obsessed young teens) and hyped-up crosscutting between the school play's climax and police arresting the groundskeeper.
Adult actors, especially Steadman, turn in good performances, but the kids are a drag. In his big finale scene, pouring his heart out to Ann, John Albasiny delivers his lines into the ground, inadvertently giving a worse performance than his intentionally incompetent non-acting during the school play. Tech credits are okay.