[3] The show was based on the activities of the staff of the Junior Gazette, a children's newspaper initially produced by pupils from the local comprehensive school.
The main story arc was the on-off romance between the newspaper's editor Lynda Day (Julia Sawalha) and Spike Thomson (Dexter Fletcher).
The other main characters were assistant editor Kenny Phillips (Lee Ross), Sarah Jackson (Kelda Holmes), the paper's enterprising accountant Colin Mathews (Paul Reynolds) and Frazz Davies (Mmoloki Chrystie).
[7] Bob Spiers, who writer Moffat credits as setting the visual style,[8] made his Press Gang directorial debut with "One Easy Lesson".
The show addressed its first serious issue in the two part story "How to Make a Killing", in which the team expose shopkeepers who sell solvents to underage customers.
The penultimate episode, "Monday-Tuesday", sees a character commit suicide after being rejected from the writing team and told some home truths by Lynda.
[7] However she had committed herself to roles in the LWT sitcom Close to Home and Jupiter Moon, so the character was replaced by Sam Black (Gabrielle Anwar).
[7][13] Colin sets his money-making sights on Suzy Norton (Abigail Docherty), a brilliant schoolgirl chessplayer, by persuading her to take part in a grand tournament against Frazz.
Elsewhere, after Spike is excluded from school and risks his place on the Junior Gazette when he beats up a sixth former for writing something on the common room wall, Lynda goes all-out to provide his defence.
The same actress (Aisling Flitton) who played a wrong number in "Love and the Junior Gazette" reprised her character for "Chance is a Fine Thing".