I woke up this morning with heartburn and a television theme tune whirring around in my head.
It was for a British television sitcom, and I was convinced it was from Please Sir!, in which a young teacher (played by John Alderton) attempts to instruct his unruly class of 16-year-old pupils.
It ran on ITV between 1968 and 1972 and was a staple feature in my house as I was growing up, which puts paid to the family legend that I was never allowed to watch anything but the BBC because my late mother deemed the ‘other channel’ well, ‘a bit common’.
The supporting cast included Joan Sanderson as the headmistress (she later took the role of Mrs Richards, a deaf and domineering guest in an episode of Fawlty Towers, and made it unforgettably her own) and Deryck Guyler as Potter the janitor.
This memory sent me down a rabbit hole where I discovered this:
I don’t remember it. Fortunately.
Then I played the theme tune to Please Sir! and realised the tune in my head was nothing of the sort.
But I did find this trailer for the film version from 1971. I wonder if it’s still available to watch? It’s very much like looking through a glass darkly at my own comprehensive school education which I started the year afterwards.
Anyway, I sang the theme tune that was in my head to Mr Grigg. He looked at me as if I were an escaped badger. He was none the wiser, which is probably because of the way I sang it.
And then it came to me. The theme tune was for this:
Another British sitcom made by London Weekend Television from 1969 – 1970.
They don’t make programmes like this any more. Which is probably just as well.
Maddie Grigg 