Review of Teachers: Series 4

Introduction

Remember the old classic that starts "Mum, I don`t want to go to school today, it`s terrible …" and ends "But dear, you`re the headmaster!"? `Teachers` is essentially that very same joke padded out; it`s not the students that are the immature and emotionally stunted ones walking the halls - it`s their education providers.

Ostensibly NOT picking up where the last series left off, the fourth outing of the cult channel 4 comedy sees Brian and Kurt (the PE and IT teachers who were mainstays of series 1-3) missing from the cast list. The official line on this is that they were unexplainably killed off (the series starts with the remaining teachers p***ing on their graves!) and, coincidentally, the school has combined with another - hence a host of new teachers to add to the cast.

The very first series of `Teachers` was a mile stone in programming. Although Chris Morris` `Jam` had pioneered the fast paced and oddly angled TV comedy, `Teachers` managed to take the surreal aspects of such shows and cleverly blend it with a comedy drama. The effect was to give the viewer something equally revolutionary and familiar. However, the first series was different to the subsequent three, in that it focused on Simon - played by This Life`s Andrew Lincoln - and the relationship that he had with his colleagues. Ever since, it has been more a show of equals - all the teachers are given story lines and dramas of their own.

The DVD of series 4 contains all 9 episodes of cussing, drinking, smoking, oh - and a little bit of teaching! Ex-head of English, Bob, has finally got himself a new wife (mail order) and a matching toupe, whilst Penny is dating a sixth former and feeling the wrath of school secretary Liz in the process. It`s not all romance though. Whilst Biology teacher Lindsey is fighting a losing battle against her own appetite, Ben (RE teacher) is in a permanent state of anxiety and worry. And to think they say it`s the best years of your life.

Video

One thing that sets `Teachers` out from the rest of the cult comedy crop is its attention to detail. There is always more going on in the scene than merely the main action, and there are plenty of examples of such goings on over these three discs; Children building a replica of Stonehenge in the playground, small boys walking out of cupboards and a large amount of vertically challenged adults as the support staff.

The actual visual quality of the DVDs is also very good - the transfer being almost perfect. The colours are bright and vibrant and, well, the whole thing pretty much looks fantastic.

Audio

`Teachers` has, over the course of the previous series, consistently come up with a killer soundtrack to accompany the immature antics of the characters. It`s good to see that with S4, the producers haven`t let this slip.

Not only is the show crammed with top notch tuneage, you actually get the feeling that the teachers themselves would listen to the music that accompanies on screen. This might not seem like much, but it certainly helps to complete the overall feeling of the program and could go a long way to explain why it has been so enduring.

Features

When you see the overall score at the bottom of the page, please note that I would have added an extra point if they`d included ANYTHING other than the shows on the DVD. There really is no excuse …

Conclusion

There have been many who have criticised the fourth instalment in the Teaching saga for the exclusion of many of the original cast, claiming that it is no where near as good as it used to be. There is an often used expression for these people - idiots - `Teachers Series 4` is just as good as funny and entertaining as any of its predecessors.

Oddly enough, this series actually benefits from the loss of key characters. Ben, Damien and (new Heartthrob) Ewan act so as to inject a bit of new blood into the show, keeping it moving on, rather than stagnating. You have to applaud the producers for the bravery of this move - it has failed appallingly elsewhere in the past. Those who are (or were) fans of Jack Davenport`s post-`This Life` sitcom `Coupling` will remember the sad demise of its appeal once Richard Coyle`s `Jeff` character was written out. The loss of Brian and Kurt leaves no such void - in fact, Damien and Ben are arguably funnier!

All this means that, although the older members of staff have been around for a while, there are new relationships and boundaries to explore. This is not a series that is trading on past glories - it takes a solid foundation and builds something new and rather fantastic on top of it. If Channel 4 have any sense, they`ll commission another series off the back of this evidence, but if they don`t, it`ll go out with a bang rather than a mere whimper. Top of the class.