Review by neiljones1981

I loved this when I was younger, the central premise of a headmaster character that we didn't like as children resonates with us all. The fact it has now been pushed out on DVD is excellent. Okay it was made in the 1990s so the special effects and some of the props look a bit dated these days (there is sight of a Docking Station in one episode, which were relatively common at the time but would later fall out of fashion as laptops became more sophisticated).

Of course one has to bear in mind that the first two books date originally from 1982 and 1985, so the TV show had to update the technology a bit, and of course time now makes this look old and clunky. Still its retro which is in at the moment so...

Anyway it was a great TV show, so dark and moody, the show was relatively faithful to the books, and Terrence Hardiman was fantastically wonderful as the Headmaster.

Having originally read the books, all bar two of them were adapted for the TV show. The current book coverings paint over all knowledge that there was ever a TV adaptation in the first place. The "Hunky Parker" book was not adapted, probably because it was such a surreal and strange concept in the book it just couldn't work on TV.

Very well recommended. Will be checking out the rebooted version later in 2019 which will probably not stand up to this but we shall see.