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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 196485" data-attributes="member: 23">I'm on the fence with the ending of The Fenn Street Gang. There was an open ending with a new beginning, so it was one of those "life goes on" finishes. While it did feel a little too unfinished for me, I'm not unhappy with it either. I got the sense the powers that be suspected there wouldn't be a fourth series, without being certain, and so wrote the ending in the hope there would be a return or even a further spin-off with some of the stories told within. As with the wedding episode in particular, and the third series in general, the biggest disappointment about the finale were the absences of Maureen and Dennis. Along with Frank Abbott, Maureen is one of two characters who have become increasingly essential characters for me as the years' worth of episodes have gone by. Maureen seemed to blossom into a rounded character, even more so during the spinoff. Frank pretty much went under my radar for most of Please Sir!'s early years (I remember being surprised by his apparent top student billing in an earlier episode, and not even knowing which character he played). But I've grown to enjoy his unhealthily close relationship to his controlling, smothering, hypochondriac mother (and I love that his middle name turned out to be "Oedipus"). His romance with Celeste has been good for the series, and creeping in as a replacement for the slightly dopey female lead, Celeste has proven to be an amusing character as well. The slightly surreal dialogue between them during the "Red Shadow" scene as Frankie persuaded Celeste to elope with him was a delight, as was the climax of the scene, which had Celeste throwing her suitcase from her bedroom window for Frankie to catch, knocking him from the top of his ladder. Paradoxically, Sharon's pregnancy seemed at the same time inappropriate and most apt. Even though the journey has been an organic one, it's a little odd to think of the story that began with schoolchildren ending with two of the young characters about to produce a child of their own. But at the same time, it's a further change of circumstance that feels like the next step for them. And indeed, one that would change the landscape enough for the series to need to end. I must say I was secretly hoping they'd find themselves at the gates of Fenn Street school for series' end. Nonetheless, there's something fundamentally naff-yet-comforting about the funfair, so it's not an entirely unfitting place to bring the series to a close.</blockquote>

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