Schools and Teachers: Radio Plays

NOTES

THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE 1974
A radio adaptation of the famous novel about the schoolmistress with radical ideas, who isn't quite so clever as she thinks. She learns this by the end. The story is set in the thirties, when women with views were not appreciated in the way they are now... a totally absorbing play. At the time of writing I do not have the casting / production details to hand. 90m; I think Saturday Night Theatre.

END OF TERM....1975
29 Jan 75. By "E.H. Hendry". Very funny play about a little-known private school where all is not well. There has been a catastrophic loss of pupils, the staff are resting on imaginary laurels, and it's approaching the end of term. Stars Richard Briers/Peter Sallis/Nigel Lambert/Norma Ronald. 45m. Producer Martin Jenkins. (......I am grateful to Alan Stokes, who supplied a recording - ND)

THE LAND WHERE THE KING IS A CHILD 1977
By Henri de Montherlant (dram. Henry Reed) - a strange, dark tale set in a Catholic boarding school in a Paris suburb between the world wars. (Thanks DP)

MR. PERRIN & MR. TRAILL 1978
By Hugh Walpole. Set in a boarding school at the turn of the 20th century; a new young teacher clashes with an older well-established colleague. (Thanks DP)

THAT BOY 1978
By Ivor Wilson. A teacher and a former 'problem' pupil meet in the trenches in WWI and reminisce about the orphan school they attended and its nightmarish headmaster. (Thanks DP)

UNMAN, WITTERING AND ZIGO 1985
An ambitious young teacher is demoralised by his class, who claim to have done something to his predecessor. See Giles Cooper page.

SYRUP OF FIGS 1986
The girls' school from hell.

THE PASSION FLOWER HOTEL 1985
Very funny "sex comedy" set in a girls' school, adapted by Bert Coules. 90m.

AN ENGLISH LESSON....1980
By Paul Thain. A London teacher tries to explain the Irish question to a sink-class.

MARKING TIME 1980
A rather sad play about a once-keen teacher who is no longer respected by his pupils or his colleagues.

HEADLINES 1985
By Melville Jones. With Paul Walker. An ill-mannered female student at a secondary school is appallingly rude to a teacher. A convoluted play, leading eventually to her come-uppance. I think mid to late 80s (....date now added-ND).

MOSSIE c1988
By Aubrey Evans - a thirty-minute theatre offering from the late 80s is an interesting play about schools. (Thanks CL)

Breaking Up....1991
By Peter Roberts, who has many years' experience of teaching. A hilarious schools comedy, with the staff in revolt, the school in financial turmoil, and the oiks running riot. 60m, afternoon play, only broadcast on longwave; can't remember why. With Norman Rodway, James Telfer, Carl Wright.

Better Not Singing....1991
By Patrick Costelloe (AP Wed 31 July 1991). An adult looks back on his boarding school experiences reflecting that it is better not to stand out.

THE HEAD MAN....c1998
Several plays broadcast in (I think) two series. Please see Jonathan Smith's page. Jonathan has a great deal of experience as a teacher, and there's no better person to write about "The Learning Game".

THE BLEEPER MAN....2000
The Bleeper Man, by Mike Harris (R4 23 Jun 00; Friday play) - an interesting tale about a failing school and how an unusual Head recruits one of his old teachers, a loony leftie past her best and well into retirement, to help him pull it round. This play was full of surprises, and there was a good twist at the end. The oiks were well played too. The head, Pat, was Nigel Cooke, and Beth, his deputy, Alwyne Taylor. The director was Clive Brill. Indie. (Watchmaker production)...........(....ND, VRPCC newsletter, Sep 2000)

Comment from Clive Lever:
Your website says: The obvious play about teaching which hasn't been written yet is the story of how our education system has changed over the last 25 years. John Clare commmented recently in his Daily Telegraph column that secondary teachers have been told to implement 547 government initiatives over this period. Such a play would need a teacher to write it.

Didn’t Mike Harris attempt to do that in The his Friday play, The Bleeper Man? The problem with saying that we need a play showing how the education system has changed in the last 25 years, is that you may have written that in say, 2000, but of course, 25 years ago then isn’t 25 years ago now. Harris’s play starts and ends with a speech on education reform by David Blunkett. A school in special measures gets a new headmaster. He appoints one deputy head to deal with statistics, and another, the teacher who inspired him to ‘be anything he wanted to be’, to liaise with the parents. Apparently the head gets amazing results turning failing schools around, but is he all that he seems to be, or are he and his statistician cooking the books?

Quartermaine's Terms....2009
By Simon Gray (The Saturday Play 24 January 2009). Strictly a sub-set of the genus plays about teachers and schools since it is set in a Cambridge school for foreign learners of English.

South Downs....2012
By David Hare (Saturday Drama 1 Sep 2012) The Guardian review called this a companion piece to "The Browning Version". Based on the author's own experiences at Lancing College in the 1960s.

Same title plays:
The two plays I know of called Excluded would fit into the ‘Schools and teachers’ category. They are a stand-alone play by Michael Stewart, and episode 2 of the second series of Clara Glynn’s legal dramas, Behind Closed Doors. (- CL)

Compiled by Nigel Deacon / Diversity website, with additions by Clive Lever.

Above plays known to exist in VRPCC collections

Back to top