Figure 1.--John Albasiny played the centarl character in "P'Tang Yang Kipperbang". He wears a short pants school uniform and is irritated that his rival wears long troiusers.

"P'Tang Yang Kipperbang" is a lovely little film set in a boy's grammar school (selective secondary school) during the 1950s. Romance is on the minds of students and teachers at British secondary school set in the 1950s. A boy's travails at home and at school where he is punished for constant tardiness. The basic plot is the standard boy likes girl at school, but is too embarrassed to confront her. Alan relates everything to a running cricket commentary (provided superbly by John Arlott) right up to the will he, won't he finale, when he has to kiss Abagail in a school play. A thrashing scene is played for humor. The hero and his friends still wear short trousers to school, but the one suave boy they all dislike wears longs. Apparently boys, are more correctly the parents. The boys at the school are allowed the option of long or short pants with their uniform. The boy is played by John Albasiny. An English reader was particularly impressed with this film, "This was a delightful movie, and was the first one shown on Britain's Channel 4. The film is set in 1948 and there is very accurate period costuming in the film. It is well-worth seeing if you have the chance. The boy's development is observed by metaphor through the voice-over of a cricket commentary." An English reader tells us, "The film shows John Albasiny in his school uniform that he wore in the film. John played in a series of programmes called "Amazing Stories - Gershwin's Trunk", which ran between (1985-87) and I'm almost sure that "P’tang Yang Kipperbang" was one of those stories. Although this conflicts with the date HBC has for the film. I watched P’tang Yang Kipperbang and I recognise the school uniform that John Albasiny wore in the movie." A Canadian reader writes, "The main character thinks of everything in terms of how it relates to cricket. It is primarily about a 'coming of age' of a young teenager."

Created: August 8, 2003
Last updated: August 9, 2003