"Please Sir!" X Certificate (TV Episode 1969) Poster

(TV Series)

(1969)

User Reviews

Review this title
2 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
7/10
Caught On Camera!
ShadeGrenade1 May 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Fenn Street Secondary Modern are planning an 'Open Day', but 5C's contribution will consist of 'coats and teas'. Hedges is having none of it, and suggests the class make a movie entitled 'Our School'.

The class are thrilled, particularly Sharon, who sees it as her chance to break into movies. But the resulting film is a disaster, consisting of monotonous shots of the school, and unconvincing footage of both teachers and pupils attempting to look natural.

Then Hedges hits upon an idea - to turn the film into a critique of the education system. This does not make him popular with Mr.Cromwell and Miss Ewell...

A standard sitcom plot line for years was 'the home-made movie'. 'Man About The House' used it in 'The Last Picture Show', 'Only Fools & Horses' in 'Video Nasty', and 'The Goodies' did 'Movies'. Here 'Please Sir!' does its version of the idea, but the execution is not as good as it might have been. Miss Ewell steals the film, end of story. So why does Hedges not make another? He gives in all too easily. The beautiful Suzan Farmer crops up briefly as journalist 'Judith Howard'.

Funniest moment - the film itself, which looks like it was made by Benny Hill on an off-day. At one point, Mr.Cromwell is seen nervously edging off screen, then reappears from a different direction!
1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
X Certificate
Prismark107 December 2020
It is the school open day and Mr Hedges has the idea of making a specially shot film about Fenn Street school.

However Class 5C lack the filming style of even Ingrid Bergman.

Mr Hedges gets into trouble with his critical commentary about the school. Cold toilets and overcrowded classrooms.

Unlike nowadays when kids can make movies on smartphones and wonderfully edit them online. Back in 1969 you needed a Super 8 movie camera and had to manually edit the film.

So no surprise that the results are not that good. The staff are unnatural in front of the camera and it is badly edited. How bad the film is has been over exaggerated for the episode.

Mr Hedges serious points about the school is obscured but then again the reel of film mysteriously disappears. Probably to save his job.
1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed