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Director : Anthony Page Cast : Frank Windsor (Fisher), Michael Byrne (Russell), Colin Douglas (Phillips), Terence Burtenshaw (David), Anthony Dobse (Geoff Edwards), Paul Smithers (Gerry), Mary Macleod (June Wade), Pearl Page (Mrs Evans), Auriol Smith (Mrs Russell), Gerald Sim (Carter), Kevin Hourigan (Peter), Patricia Lawrence (Margaret Fisher), Anthony Roye (Harvey), Hugh Thomas (Dickinson), Perry Benson (Nicky), Allan Cullen (The Chairman), Margot Boyd (Miss Williams) and Arnold Diamond (Andrews). Publicity : Most people believe you have to be a famous playwright with a name like John Hopkins or David Mercer to get your play produced on Play For Today. John Challen proves that a first attempt by an unknown writer can crack the sacred slot. A teacher at an education college in Lincoln, Challen wrote Headmaster, addressed it to BBC Plays Department, and carried on teaching. Director Anthony Page read it, liked it, and asked to direct it. On Thursday at 9:25pm (BBC-1) you can see this "modest achievement". Challen has been in what he calls "the hurly burly" of teaching for over twenty years. But although the play is about a headmaster he insists it is not autobiographical. "Why does everybody take it for granted it must be about me? I wouldn't like to be in the situation of my characters at all. You see, the play is all about the patterns of security that people build up around themselves and how easily they can get knocked down. I've had a fortunate life. None of that has happened to me". (Radio Times, March 14, 1974). Synopsis : Fisher is good at his job but in new circumstances that isn't enough: he has to face all the risks of competition for something bigger. Notes : This episode was originally transmitted 9:25pm to 10:25pm on BBC 1.
Director : Roland Joffe Cast : Geraldine Moffat, Lee Hodgson, John Williams, Paul Sadler, Izmet Mehmet, Esmond Webb, David Nunn, Lucinda Curtis, Leonard Kavanagh, Brian Oulton, Tom Georgeson (Hart), Peter Godfrey, Ian Thompson, David Hargreaves, Paul Ellison, Keith Macey, Avril Elgar, Simon Henderson, Ian Hoare, Sylvester Williams, Michael Clements, Clive Merrison and Ann Kennedy. Publicity : Old School Ties - BBC-2's new play series about a headmaster and his school has sprung from a 1974 Play For Today. Frank Windsor takes up the part of Tom Fisher where the original play left off. John Challen, author of the plays, went with Windsor to visit the actor's old school: "School sounds," said Red Saunders, the photographer. One kind of school sound, anyway - that of Frank Windsor, former pupil of Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall, walking through the building in which he had been a schoolboy. Since then the boys have moved out and the girls of the nearby high school have moved in. Frank paused, no doubt recalling those other school sounds - the clatter of feet on stairs, animated discussions of last Saturday's match, teachers' voices. The eternal dichotomy of schooldays recalled: the circumstances have changed, the pupil is now a man and the school has been transformed; but the memory is fixed. The man recalls the circumstances, sees himself in another time, walks though the empty hall alone but accompanied by his younger self. Gaudeamus igitur and all that - incredibly potent in this confident building with the winter sunshine moving rapidly across the floor. Around the walls of the old hall are boards bearing the names of distinguished former pupils. Most of the boards stayed when the boys moved into new buildings nearby - it was impractical to move them all. But, from one which had gone, Frank quoted the legend by heart: "Those in the glorious morning of their days, For England's sake lost all but England's praise". Seen daily, as part of the familiar pattern of schooldays, the words remained. All his memories were not as solemn. Earlier as we had stood on Church Hill in the ancient centre of Walsall: "Down there, at the bottom of the hill, I remember, there used to be an eating place … Dance's Dining Room … we kids used to go there for a Penny Dip - slice of bread dipped in the juices of the meat. And for twopence, they'd cut you some of the crackly bits from the outside of the roast to go with it". We had looked at the panoramic view over the Black Country - today, at any rate, belying its name. Near at hand the terraces of houses, some being demolished, stood sharp and clear - but in the distance it was a mist-laden, oyster-grey country. "Every door I open brings a fresh surprise," said Frank as we made our way through the school. "Anyway, this used to be a Science lab". And it still was - modernised and re-equipped but still with the same unmistakable smell compounded of chalk dust and stale gas. "I used to enjoy Physics, but then we had to make a choice for School Cert - Classics or Science". So he had chosen Classics because that was what had seemed appropriate to the careers he was then considering. Later, when he decided he wanted to be a doctor, it was too late. And, in any case, as his headmaster said, with remarkable prescience, on his final report: "It is obvious that Frank's greatest talents lie in the direction of the theatre and the sooner he heads in that direction, the better". It was here that Frank first trod the boards, graduating from the Constable of France in Henry V via the Fool in Lear to a final choice - lucky young actor - between Jaques in As You Like It and the title role in Richard II. It was a choice much discussed in the staffroom and Frank's English teacher made up his mind for him: "Came up to me one day and said, `You take Richard II'". So he did. The old school does not have a very impressive stage, but in the new buildings there's a superb hall as well as excellent facilities for outdoor productions. And much more besides. There are specialist rooms for such subjects as Computer Science, Engineering Physics and Economics. There's a resource centre with an impressive stock of technological aids. And a fine gymnasium with squash courts and a swimming pool - which the school makes available to its own community. He went to the landing by the Art rooms, familiar to schoolboy Frank, who sometimes spent Art time out rather than in. "One of those subjects I wasn't bad at but not good … one of the freer subjects, you know? Occasion for some high spirits". Enough said. One can't, anyway, do full justice to descriptions of past misdemeanours - stripped of their stomach, the tightening sense of risk, the approbation or awe of one's fellows, they lose their savour. And, anyway, Windsor, F. was finally elevated to the dignity of the prefect's room. "And, basically, I never wanted to leave, really. I was really very happy. In fact, if I'd had the choice, I think I'd have stayed forever". But, of course, time moves on. The boy becomes the prefect becomes the national serviceman becomes the actor becomes Tom Fisher, the eponymous Headmaster. Headmaster is about change. Those of you who saw the original Play For Today from which this series is derived may remember that Tom Fisher was the head of a local secondary modern about to be merged with a nearby grammar school. Should he go for the over-all headship, risking a public battle and the possibility of a public defeat, or should he accept the "consolation prize" of the headship of the Lower School, younger children but a wider range? He went for the first prize and lost to a younger man, one of the new generation of educationalists. These six plays show how he, his deputy and others from the old grammar school and the old "sec mod" respond to the new situation. Here, at Walsall, as in the rest of the educational world (one hopes, at any rate) change mingles with continuity. From Frank's schooldays only one teacher, Mr Fink, remains; but the personal contact has not been broken. Frank has occasionally returned to Queen Mary's Grammar for such things as fund-raising activities and he maintains contact with Mr Darby, the present head. In the boys, too, there is continuity and change. Those whose heads turned discreetly as we passed their classrooms. Or those who demonstrated their football skills with the quiet, purposeful precision of those who know they're pretty good. Or those who welcomed the visitors and the consequent break in routine. Or those who carried on working in the calm - temporarily disrupted - of the library. They will provide their own continuity. (Radio Times, February 5, 1977 - Article by John Challen). Synopsis : The amalgamation of Tom Fisher's Secondary Boys' School with the Grammar School "up the road" into one large Comprehensive has been completed. Defeated by Alan Russell for the overall Headship, Fisher decides to stay on as Head of the Lower School. The events of the first day lead him to question his decision. Notes : Episodes were originally transmitted 9:00pm to 9:50pm on BBC 1.
Director : Richard Martin Cast : Edward Petherbridge (Mr Parsons), Stephen Kebell (Patrick Davenant), Lucinda Curtis, David Hargreaves, David Muldowney, Chris Hall, Paul Campbell, Leonard Kavanagh, Ian Thompson, Patsy Byrne (Mrs Parsons), Andrew Plant, Vincent Hall, Miles Ross, Vaughan Passey and Gary Rice. Synopsis : Patrick Davenant makes life a misery for Parsons, his RE teacher. Originally a teacher in the Grammar School, Parsons, baited by Patrick and his classmates, becomes angry and bewildered.
Director : Richard Martin Cast
: Ann
Kennedy, Lucinda Curtis, Cherry Morris,
Brian Oulton, Davidson Knight, Michael
Friedlander, David Hargreaves, Ian Thompson,
Tom Georgeson (Hart), Colm Daley, Jessie
Birdsall (Clive), Patrick Leslie, Geraldine
Moffatt and Peggy Ann Wood.
Director : Gerald Blake Cast
: Sheelah
Wilcocks, Clive Merrison, Alisdair Irvine,
Nigel Rhodes, Todd Carty, Shirley Dixon,
Ken Watson, Mark Baxter, Roger Hume,
David Hargreaves, Ian Thompson, Lucinda
Curtis, John Leeson, Phil Daniels, Tom
Georgeson (Hart), Ann Kennedy (Margaret
Fisher), Kenton Moore, Brenda Peters
and Paul Lambert.
Director : Roland Joffe Cast
: Ian
Thompson, Tom Georgeson (Hart), Ann
Kennedy, Lucinda Curtis, David Hargreaves,
Andy Andrews, Charles Skinner, Clive
Merrison, Joey Clarke, Roger Hume, Brian
Hall, John Higgens and Alan Corbett.
Director : Roland Joffe Cast
: Doreen
Mantle (The Chairman), Mark Framer,
David Nunn, Shaun Davies, John Higgens,
Roger Hume, Mark Herman, Tom Georgeson
(Hart), Ian Thompson, Peter Godfrey,
David Ryall, Lucinda Curtis, Lee Mannering,
Tony Hambleton, Ray Burdis, Franco Manzi,
Peter Sproule, Stephen Wale, Judy Buxton,
David Whitworth and Arthur Blake. |
 BBC Television's enchantment with the changing face of British education had seen BBC Scotland's This Man Craig rise to prominence in the 1960s, Phil Redmond's Grange Hill emerge as a popular and enduring format in the 1980s and beyond, and Lucy Gannon's Hope And Glory feature a black Head Teacher in the shape of Lenny Henry in the late 1990s.  The educational production of the 1970s was spawned from an entry in the highly-successful Play For Today series entitled Headmaster, and scripted by newcomer John Challen who, as cited by the Radio Times, bucked the trend of recognised script contributions by being an unknown writer. The sixty-minute production featured Frank Windsor (as Z Cars was drawing to a close) as Tom Fisher, a man who is particularly good at his job as a school Headmaster, but the advent of a merger between the local secondary modern at which he works, and a nearby grammar school "up the road", placed the staff's jobs in jeopardy and found Fisher risking everything to obtain a coveted promotion. In the event, he lost out to a younger, more "forward-thinking" man, and the play itself served as a reflection of the rapidly changing nature of the education system and the merger of several educational establishments as the face of Britain changed once again.  This Play For Today edition was broadcast in March 1974, and such was its popularity that it spawned a six-part series under the same title three years later. The primary cast of Windsor, Michael Byrne as Russell and Colin Douglas as Phillips, continued on into the series, whith a supporting cast which was bolstered to include the newcomers from the grammar school and the after-effects of Fisher's failed promotion bid. The series, which took as its central theme the "times change and we change with the times" motto, portrayed both sides of the educational working paper, with the benefits of the older, more compassionate form of teaching juxtaposed against modern teaching methods and the practicalities of funding issues, class sizes and the like. Fisher, a moderate man, was compassionately portrayed as a man who was passionately devoted to his students welfare and to the education system as a whole, and this often brought him into conflict with the man who ultimately succeeded in poaching his chance of promotion - Russell. Challen, who also scripted the series in its entirety, strike the right balance between the two points of view in such a way that this series became a welcome portrayal of the state of contemporary, in 1977 at least, education in Britain. A "warts and all" presentation. Devoid of the relative soap trappings which tended to weigh down its logical successor Hope And Glory, the programme was highly entertaining, supported by a strong and emotive performance from Frank Windsor, although audiences would ultimately only identify him from his Z Cars years. Grange Hill would, of course, explore more thoroughly the angst of students and the like, and as such Headmaster is perhaps an example of the angst-ridden teachers as opposed to those whom they taught. The series was produced by Raymond Menmuir, with directorial contributions from Roland Joffe, Richard Martin and Gerald Blake. Notable supporting performances came from Tom Georgeson, David Hargreaves, Patsy Byrne, Sheelah Wilcocks, Doreen Mantle and Clive Merrison. The series was, regrettably, never globally exported nor commercially released. Text © Matthew Lee, 2004.
The play and series was created and written by created by John Challen. The Play For Today drama production was produced by Graeme McDonald and script edited by Ann Scott. The series was produced by Raymond Menmuir. |