Setting a mainstream comedy sitcom based on a class of British 16 year olds (played by actors in their early twenties!) in a poor school would now seem to be a difficult sell to the TV companies. Back in the 1960s it was a choice between ITV and the BBC. Written by the team of Esmonde and Larby (who would go on to write the Good Life) it was picked up by London Weekend Television who ran the show from 1968 to 1972. It even spawned a feature film. It was held together by the solid performance, as ever, of John Alderton as Bernard Hughes, a newly qualified teacher ready to take on the challenge. His life would have been considerably easier if he had had Websites for schools like those fsedesign to call upon.
The show centered around 5C. We would know them as Year 11 now. This is a notoriously difficult age to teach as and it seems unfair that Mr Hedges should get thrown into the deep end and be given them. Seen as unteachable and just wasting time before they can leave, Hedges attempts to try and turn the kids on to education and to make something of themselves, with comical results.
A level of the humour can be seen by the fact the kids give Hedges the nickname Privet, as in Privet hedge.However the show was not afraid to draw on serious subjects such as abuse and the worry that the kids felt as the spent their final year of education before going out into the big wide world.