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COMPREHENSIVE PRANKERY starring a mob of tousled twenty- (in some cases thirty-) somethings squeezing behind desks pretending to be rowdy teens and giving the run around to dapper but dithering JOHN ALDERTON. Fenn Street Secondary Modern was the location, seemingly built just behind the world’s largest power station. Antique establishment populated by dusty relics JOAN SANDERSON, DERYCK “WHERE’S ME WASHBOARD?” GUYLER and NOEL HOWLETT, all of whom regularly professed to being completely bemused by “young people today”. Close to 568,399,035 episodes made. Stop-start bell-ringy theme in the top ten sitcom openers of all time.
Adrian
May 11, 2010 at 10:50 am
Was this the one where the caretaker was meant to be an old Desert Rat?
It got a film release as well, which the more deserving Grange Hill didn’t..
televisualcabbage
May 11, 2010 at 1:46 pm
That was Potter, to you young lad…
Oh Yes!
I wonder if Churchill the Dog got the idea for his catchphrase from him?
Of its time, but the middle bit of the theme sounds like Blankety Blank. As pointed out by The Bake on several occasions
David Smith
May 11, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Please Sir is also one of the comparatively few sitcoms to have spawned a second spinoff – Bowler starring George Baker.
Glenn A
May 17, 2011 at 6:50 pm
When did it go comprehensive?
Glenn Aylett
October 22, 2023 at 1:42 pm
There were plenty of secondary moderns like this one, where the kids were expected to leave at 15 and go into factory jobs and the teachers were often the oldest and least qualified. I attended one of the last secondary moderns for two years and we had a headmaster who was like the one in Please Sir, mostly sitting in an office and drinking tea and dreaming of his retirement, a deputy headmistress who liked a drink and was supposed to be a music teacher( she made Les Dawson sound good), some old boys who always harked back to the war and National Service, and a couple of young idealistic teachers who were like Hedges and wanted to broaden the kids horizons.