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Clip description
The instructor of the self-actualisation course (William Zappa) is sprouting his New Age speak with the two private detectives (Terry Bader and Richard Healy) a captive audience. Meanwhile the thoroughly dependable Girl Friday (Debra Lawrence) gets to know the migrant women on the factory floor during their all-too-brief lunchbreak, while the bad PA system crackles with the latest unintelligible management edict.
Curator’s notes
Each week the program makes its mark by satirising an aspect of contemporary life. Here it is this wonderful evocation of the world of a New Age self-improvement school. The instructor’s part is beautifully written, and so well played by William Zappa that he is creepy to watch. The Dickensian factory, peopled with hardworking migrant women, effectively provides a darker side to the story.
John Clarke’s hilarious management-speak announcements, broadcast to the factory floor, are pure gobbledegook – especially to the migrant women, many of whom struggle with English anyway. It shows another way that management harries these hardworking women while completely ignoring the real problems on the factory floor like unsafe machinery and a complete lack of understanding of what the women need in order to do a good job.
