Please Sir!

Please Sir ran for four years from 1968- 1972, and centred upon a newly qualified and idealistic newly qualified teacher played by John Alderton and his task of teaching a motley group of vibrant and outspoken working class kids from the other side of the pond.

The early series featuring Alderton were the best featuring a mix of school related comedy and realistic and relatable situations faced by the pupils of Fenn street.

The series was successful enough for a feature film version released in 1971, which Involved the pupils of Fenn street going on a school trip to a rural activity centre, in which they invariably cause havoc and get into a rivalry with a group of upper class students from a private school.

The early series featuring John Alderton and 5C pupils were the best when Alderton left as well as his class it wasn't the same; and his replacement a teacher named ' David Fincher Brown', played by the late Richard Warwick's personality didn't fit in with the Initial premise of the show which was about this class of working class kids from the other side of the town.

His personality and overall demeanor was more in line with a teacher from the Novel; ' Tom Browns school days than of a teacher at the local comprehensive school.

Overall: a watchable sitcom from a bygone era, funny and moving in equal doses.

For the first three seasons, this show was very good. It is the story of an idealistic teacher played by John Alderton who becomes the teacher for the unruly students of class 5C. The students (some of whom looked older than their school ages) aren't bad kids, but they are from a working class background, kind of a rough upbringing. They are naturally not trusting of authority, and Alderton does a good job as the teacher that they actually, if not love, at least respect. There are other characters, like Norman (Deryck Guyler), who is the comic foil most often, the somewhat doddering Headmaster (Mr. Howlett) and the tough as nails Doris (Joan Sanderson), but the show is best when it revolves around 5C. After three seasons the kids of 5C were no longer in the series, neither was Alderton. The show went on for another season, but the momentum was lost. Not a laugh riot, it is better than most school comedies. Its more realistic than Welcome Back Kotter, which I like mostly for nostalgic reasons. I recommend this, you don't have to be British to like it. The movie of "Please Sir" is also recommended, it is fun.

My positive comments above only refer to the first two series. Having now seen episodes from the final two series, I'm afraid to say that they are hugely disappointing. This is largely down to cast- changes, particularly among the pupils but also the teachers. The new characters are unimpressive, with the exception of the aggressive PE teacher Mr. Dix, played by Glynn Edwards, who shows some style.

Maybe the writers were also running short of ideas by this stage, with many of the stories and scenarios becoming stale and silly. There are still occasional flashes of form, but the impression has to be that the show should have quit with its stock high after the first two fine series. These are still worth checking-out.

March 2022

So i just watched all the episodes for the first time on dvd. I had previously seen the film many times and i love that.

So the series...well disappointing on the whole, and they didnt know when enough was enough, it continued after the main characters left and that was a mistake, there was suddenly no direction and no main characters amongst the kids. One week you get introduced to a couple of the kids, thinking they are going to be our main ones and that was it, you never saw them again, and thats what it was like, including the teachers sometimes too, with new ones coming and going all the time.

Watch the film instead, we also had an offshoot series (fenn street gang) which follows the original students, which was a little better than this one.

Some of the later episodes i would only rate as about a 4 out of 10, but most earlier episodes were better.

5.5 out of 10.

As an exemplar of ensemble sitcom Please,Sir! would be very hard to beat. The first two series certainly contained both scripts and performances that would put much else to shame.Anyone who has been through the English state school system in the last 50 years would recognise most of the character types and this realism certainly added to the charm. John Alderton was well cast as the young idealist but arguably overshadowed by the simply peerless Joan Sanderson as frosty deputy head Miss Ewell and the great Derek Guyler as the war obsessed caretaker,and every school that I ever attended had a miserable physics teacher , pens in breast pocket, who openly hated teaching as presented here by Richard Price. The pupils were an almost equally solid troupe- although quite visibly 10 years too old for the roles - and over all it just worked superbly well. Sadly , like most sitcoms, it outstayed it's welcome and by the final series was almost unrecognisable with a changed cast and weaker, sometimes repeating, scripts but for the first two series this was as good as it got and even stands up well to nostalgic viewing nearly fifty years later. Great stuff