John Challen

'They're no trouble', says the head-master, 'just give them something simple and undemanding to do - just keep their heads down'. It was better advice then he knew.

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The producer and director are delighted with their television play about a comprehensive school. It seems truthful, authentic, really lifelike. But as rehearsals progress, a tense difference of opinion emerges between the author and the young schoolboy actor.

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Graham's Gang is a British children's comedy first broadcast by the BBC in 1977 and 1979. The gang consisted of five boys - Graham, William, Lux, Robert and Keith - and one girl, Mildred. Plots often revolved around the boys trying to exclude Mildred, who would often use her influential family to force herself back into the gang. Graham's leadership of the gang was constantly threatened by William, whereas Robert and Keith were always on the verge of fighting. Lux provided comic relief because he was rather slow on the uptake. The show was filmed at Leigh Park and Havant, Hampshire. Cast ⁕Mark Francis - Graham ⁕Melanie Gibson - Mildred ⁕Neill Lillywhite - William ⁕Alan Corbett - Lux ⁕Tommy Pender - Robert ⁕Lloyd Mahoney - Keith ⁕Katherine Hughes - Denise Crew ⁕John Challen - Writer ⁕Marilyn Fox - Director ⁕Anna Home - Executive Producer Transmission Details ⁕Series One 21 November-19 December 1977 · BBC1 Mon 4.40pm ⁕Series Two 14 February-14 March 1979 · BBC1 Wed 5.05pm

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Drama series about the efforts of a traditional British school headmaster to adapt to the changing education system.

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"The voice will make its effect. And it will, undoubtedly, be very touching. But, tell me: after his voice has broken, can you make anything of him then?" After the solo, after the chorus, after the applause?

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Frank Windsor plays the titular head of a school with an increasingly tenuous grip on his position. Intriguingly, given that that it was made 40 years ago, Headnaster shows how little has changed in teaching, given its focus on the conflict between old and modern teaching methods, as well as the eternal jockeying for position amongst teaching staff.

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A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.

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Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.

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