The Fenn Street Gang – 1971

This is the spin-off of the Please, Sir! series reviewed last time. It focuses on the lives of the 5C class who graduated from Fenn Street school at the end of the 3rd season and their jobs in the real world. The 4th season of Please Sir! was on the air at the same time as the 1st season of Fenn Street Gang, so stories sometimes entertwined. Like when Sir decides to quit Fenn Street school and no longer appears on that show…a few of the episodes of FSG will show what he’s up to.

So that brings us to Robin’s episode. It aired a week before his episode of Please Sir! Aired, and he plays the same character. In this, he is sitting in the unemployment office chatting with one of the former 5C class members when Sir walks in, also in need of a job. He looks amazing. I think 1971 was his best “hair” year. His part is not that big though, they really could’ve had anyone in that role. Later on in the episode he gets a job as an in-store demonstration salesman for a juicer named “The Wizard”. Funny, as we were just in Costco a few weeks back watching a similar demonstration, minus the hot ‘70s guy. While he is making his presentation, unfortunately the camera is focused on the Sir character yakking to other people, while you barely see Robin in the background. Until near the end when Sir comes over and asks him something. Hilariously, Robin tries to turn off the juicer and it explodes and the power goes out. So anyway, yeah, this is loosely the same character of “Eddie” that he plays in Please Sir. And this one aired first, so when in Please Sir he is hanging out in the pool hall boasting that he’s a man of the world because he “had a job”, this is probably what he is referring to.

Happily, the guy I found who was selling this series was happy to negotiate and let me purchase only season 1 (containing the Robin episode) for a reduced price. I’m willing to accept that there were no surprise Robin appearances in any later episodes (there were 2 more seasons), but feel free to let me know otherwise if you know differently! I did get through all the episodes of this season but don’t feel any need to learn what happens further to these characters.