Teachers (British TV series)
Teachers is a British television comedy-drama series,[1] created by Tim Loane and originally shown on Channel 4. The series follows a group of secondary school teachers in their daily lives.
| Teachers | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Created by | Tim Loane |
| Starring | Andrew Lincoln Adrian Bower Raquel Cassidy Navin Chowdhry Nina Sosanya Gillian Bevan Ursula Holden-Gill Lloyd McGuire Ellen Thomas Tamzin Malleson James Lance Vicky Hall Lee Williams Mathew Horne James Corden |
| Ending theme | The Boy with the Arab Strap by Belle and Sebastian |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 40 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Jane Fallon |
| Running time | 45-50 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Tiger Aspect Productions |
| Distributor | Endemol UK |
| Release | |
| Original network | Channel 4 |
| Original release | 21 March 2001 – 22 December 2004 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Jeffrey |
| External links | |
| Website | |
While the first series centres heavily around probationary teacher Simon Casey (Andrew Lincoln), later series have an ensemble approach. The cast changes dramatically over time, with few original characters remaining by the fourth series. While some of these disappearances are explained, others happen between series without explanation.
The first three series are set in the fictional Summerdown Comprehensive, which merges with another school in the fourth series to form Wattkins School. The first three series were filmed at the former Merrywood Grammar School, while the fourth was filmed at the former Lockleaze school in Bristol, England.
Teachers was nominated for six BAFTA awards between 2002 and 2004, and was nominated for Best Comedy Drama at the British Comedy Awards in 2003. In January 2005, after a muted reception to the fourth series, Channel 4 announced that Teachers would not continue for a fifth series. A short lived American version was aired in 2006.
Cast
Music
Soundtracks
- Teachers: A Class Soundtrack
- Teachers 2: Back To School
- Teachers 3: A New Term
- Teachers 4: Top of the Class
Episodes
Themes
Like many sitcoms Teachers had certain themes that it maintained through every episode. These included:
- Appearances of animals, particularly donkeys, in unusual places. Others seen include lions, penguins and sheep. In all such appearances, the teachers and students are completely oblivious to these animals.
- A staffroom scene early in the episode, usually with an announcement by the head teacher Clare to set up one of the plots or premises of the episode.
- The name of the day written in a variety of ways in the scenery, a prop or a body adornment.
- Smoking: a lot of the scenes in all episodes, primarily through the first three series, feature members of the cast smoking as they banter
- The pub is the setting where nearly every episode of Teachers starts, usually with the teachers having immaturely themed conversations.
Every episode featured contemporary music, usually with clips of at least five songs (regularly including the bands The Bluetones, The Killers, The Darkness, Shed Seven, Feeder, The Dandy Warhols, Starsailor, Mercury Rev, The Hives, Athlete, I Am Kloot, The Libertines, Ash, and Supergrass), and the soundtrack to all four series has been released on CD by the shop of Channel 4.
The theme tune is the solo section of The Boy With The Arab Strap by Belle and Sebastian.
DVD releases
| Release name | UK Release Date | Original Air Date |
Discs | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teachers: Series One | 11 August 2003/24 September 2007 | 2001 | 2 | 1–8 |
| Teachers: Series Two | 29 September 2003/24 September 2007 | 2002 | 3 | 9–18 |
| Teachers: Series Three | 1 November 2004/24 September 2007 | 2003 | 4 | 19–31 |
| Teachers: Series Four | 3 October 2005 | 2004 | 3 | 32–40 |
| Teachers: Series 1-4 | 6 November 2006/2 Sep 2013 | 2001–2004 | 12 | 1–40 |