Tom Brown's Schooldays

This is the story of important 19th Century educationalist and Headmaster Dr.Thomas Arnold's effort to stamp out some of the less desirable traits in the exclusive Rugby School of that era, including bullying, gambling, and drinking. A well intentioned if sanitized version, a small pity the "good" boys all look so angelic and scrubbed up. In Alex Pettyfer we have a John Howard Davies lookalike. Davies played Tom Brown in the 1951 film, and Pip in David Lean's "Great Expectations". Overall its good clean fun and suited to television. Christopher Fry tries hard to bring some credibility to the Headmaster and largely succeeds, while Joe Beattie as the unpleasant bully Flashman is perhaps a little less effective. Not as dark as the novel suggests, often the lyrical settings are at odds the drama, certainly not a Dickensian approach. But full marks for trying to show the making of a man in Victorian England.

It's foolish to expect an exact equivalent in film/TV of a classic novel. Translating narrative prose into moving pictures offers opportunities as well as difficulties. But this was a botched job. The story was mangled and spiced up to a damaging extent. The story was seriously mangled. The aims of writer/production were confused. However quaint to us today, the story was real and based on Thomas Hughes' own schooldays. Hughes's sincere attempt to portray the great days at Rugby was thrown out the window. Several of the leading characters were retained but others were cut. Dr. Arnold was appointed to Rugby in 1827. Tom Brown (Hughes) came in the mid 1830's, this is clear from the book. Tom Brown and Scud East were pretty well portrayed. Bullyboy Flashman's wickedness was extended to include raping the matron's daughter. Brooke and Diggs, both important characters,were omitted. Young Arthur dies in this version. He does not die in the book but assists the reformation of the boys' behaviour by the example of his own piety.(He was based on Dean Stanley who actually wrote a celebrated biography of Dr. Arnold). Dr. Arnold's reforming character was fairly well presented. His regular meetings with the teaching staff etc. were pretty authentic, but his amazing reforms were more significant than shown here. His staff were all clerics with local livings but he made them sacrifice these, paid them handsome salaries and devote their professional careers to Rugby. Dr. Arnold's reforming zeal dragged British schools out of Regency degeneracy, brutality and educational sloth, paving the way for the golden age of the Victorian public school. He aimed to produce Christian Gentleman. He had little interest in games and the gift of a school gymnasium by the Flashman family an utter fiction. It was Thring at Uppingham who introduced games (as well as music) into the school curriculum twenty years later. Oddly enough, Stephen Fry was educated at Uppingham. As TV entertainment this was OK but taken as an attempt to bring a great classic to the small screen, well, really....

Have just watched this movie, with my kids....

"Mum are you sure, they actually hit kids!!" They asked, "Yes" was my reply.. "This was set along time ago" I replied.. The story may be old, But they sat there in silence watching it.. They enjoyed it and when Flashman was finally sent "down" they cheered. Nothing like a good old fashioned story...... Excellent drama, and the boy who played Tom was a gem. Obviously the beatings, and the fireplace scene was not nice, However it was a good understanding of how people used to lived. Stephen Fry was good as head master, I was not at first convinced whether he was strong enough in his character he portrayed, But he was fine...

Tom Brown's Schooldays is a well acted drama by a large group of promising young actors. The drama is predominantly male, but I still managed to enjoy it! Stephen Fry played a firm but fair headmaster, and you can see how he really 'feels' for some of the boys, and gives every boy a second chance.

Alex Pettyfer, who plays the young Tom Brown is a very talented young lad, who carried the title character very well, and the audience could see what kind of character Tom Brown is like, and I felt he was really a nice character. His character development in the drama is good, and his acting improves and improved without, particularly when tragic events occur.

Joe Beattie who plays the bully Flashman is very good, and really evoked my feelings to a strong sense of dislike for the character.

Overall, I would say this drama is definitely worth a watch, and the actors cast to the roles fit them perfectly. They all give a really good sense of how cruel school life was for young boys in those times, and you really feel empathy for the young lads.

I also certainly hope to see more of Alex Pettyfer in more things to come, as many other girls I'm sure will agree with me!

This adaptation has been tried and tested on four separate occasions. Right from the outset you could tell this screening of the famous story was sticking to the old traditional set. This was reassuring. Stephen Fry played the Doctor well with the casting of both Flashman and Tom Brown accurate. It was an average performance from Flashman, but a strong performance from the youngster who played Tom. Especially since it was his debut acting role. The story was intended for light entertainment and had no real meaning, therefore I can't scrutinise it for lacking depth. The other roles seemed too minor and the rest of the cast played their part well enough to go unnoticed. The viewers of this will forget it ten minutes after they've seen it but entertaining nonetheless and better than most in this genre.