MIND YOUR LANGUAGE:
A REVIEW OF THE FIRST SERIES:
AND AN INTRODUCTION
I first made
the acquaintance of Mind Your Language during Christmas 1977, and I happened to
be idly flicking through my parents copy of The Christmas TV Times. At the
time, I was due to watch Charleys' Aunt on ITV, which
was a modern version of the play. I can still remember watching Charleys' Aunt to this day. I have seen the film of Charleys' Aunt starring Jack Benny and I have also seen the
play at The Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton, which starred Mark Curry, Patrick
Cargill, Frank Windsor and Gabrielle Drake. But ITV have never repeated that
particular version of Charleys' Aunt since. I wish
they would, because it was the best version of Charleys'
Aunt, that I had seen ever, and I remember been in complete hysterics, when it
was on! However, before Charleys' Aunt started, I
decided to look at the new programmes that were part of the new 1978 Winter
Schedule. It covered basically the first two weeks in January. To my surprise I
noticed that a new comedy was going to start, on the last Friday, of 1977, and
the name of that new Comedy, was called: Mind Your Language, and it, was all, about
a harassed English Teacher, who had been, known, as: Jeremy Brown, who had
been, in charge, of a Class, of Foreign Students. Well, this seemed different,
I thought. As it seemed to be the only thing that seemed worth watching, I
decided that I would have a look at Mind Your Language, the following week, and
see what I thought. Little did I know that Mind Your Language would change the
whole aspect of my life, and little did I know that I would strike up a
correspondence with the late Barry Evans from time to time, over the years, and
little did I know that I would meet him fourteen years later! And, what a nice
man, he was! And I never realised that I would be
responsible for dedicating, a Website to the late Barry Evans! I have also,
become a Fan, of Red Dwarf, which is another story of course, but I did feel,
that Red Dwarfs’ sense of humour, is very similar, to
Mind Your Languages’ sense of humour, and that, had
been, the main reason, why I had been, attracted, to Red Dwarf, in the first
place, but I have got, a separate Website, devoted to Red Dwarf anyway, and at
the moment, I do not, want to compare, Mind Your Languages’ sense of humour, to Red Dwarfs’ sense of humour,
but I daresay, that will, be something, that I will, work on, as I go along,
anyway! I vaguely remember seeing his name in the TV Times, in the Cast List,
but I had no idea who exactly Barry Evans was at the time. I was to research
his acting career over the years though, but that was not to come for another
twelve months or so, and that is something that I will go into, as I go along,
via this review. Unfortunately, due to copyright reasons, I cannot transcribe
all the episodes of Mind Your Language into script format, even from memory,
but I can review them! So, without any further ado, here is a review of:
THE FIRST LESSON
To begin with,
I will review the cartoon, which was always at the start of each episode, and
accompanied the theme. Again this struck me as being very ahead of it's time, because we are not a country who specialise where animation is concerned. So, when Mind Your
Languages' theme started up, the characters of the show are all in a very
clever animated guise, which starts up with the outside of The Adult Education
Centre and the cameras zoomed in on the characters well some of them, like for
example the Spanish student, Jaun Cervantes, the
German student, Anna Schmidt, the Greek student, Giovanni Cupello,
but the action is more on the Teacher in charge of the class and then suddenly
a door opens and a girl in a very short red mini dress, enters the classroom
and the teacher in charge of the class, drops his piece of chalk, which he had
used earlier on to write the words:
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE
But
the teacher doesn't get much of a chance to approach the sexy girl, because a
shadow looms behind the door and suddenly a huge figure of a woman, well, if
you can call her a woman, enters! The woman is wearing a blue dress of a
respectable length, but her face is ugly as sin, which is virtually taken over
by some very large spectacles and it looks as if the teacher in charge is in
trouble! And that is where the cartoon finishes.
A brief word about the cartoon. The cartoon remained the same for
the rest of Series One, and the storyline was slightly different for Series
Two, but until I have reviewed all the episodes of Series One, I cannot really
go into very much detail, where the cartoon is concerned, until the very first
episode of Series Two! As for Series Three, the short silent cartoon story,
remains exactly the same as the cartoon story, for Series One, but in the case
of Series Four, there is no cartoon story, just photographs of the Mind Your
Language cast at the time, and the theme, was entirely different, but I don't
know very much about Series Four, because I only saw so many at the time, but I
will certainly review the few episodes I saw of it, at the time, and even
though it wasn't as good, as the original three series of Mind Your Language, I
did feel, that it did prove that the spirit of the original series, was still there,
to a certain extent!
But without any
further ado, I will start reviewing from the very first scene, onwards, anyhow.
The action of
Mind Your Language was mainly set in a long grey metallic corridor, which led
to the sets of Miss Courtney’s Office, the Classroom, and there were steps
leading from the corridor, which would lead up, to the Canteen, which was run,
by Gladys the Tealady (Series One to Series Three),
and Rita the Tealady (Series Four). In my opinion, I felt
that the sets of Mind Your Language were very much ahead of their time, and
were a lot better compared to the sets of the first and second series of Red
Dwarf, in my opinion! You did see other parts of the Adult Education from time
to time, and there were other sets outside the main
sets, as well. The other sets that I do remember seeing in
The Adult Education Centre for Series One was: The Gymnasium. Mind Your
Language’s Adult Education Centre could be compared to the layout of the ship
Red Dwarf, but due to budget constraints, the action of more or less every
series was in the classroom, Miss Courtneys' Office,
the corridor and the Canteen, but there were also other interior sets that were
used outside the action of The Adult Education Centre, and those were: A
Supermarket, Jamilla Ranjas'
flat, The Police Station, Jeremy Browns' Flat, and The Local Pub. There weren't
too many sets featured outside the Adult Education Centre, because it would
have detracted from the centre of things, but fortunately Mind Your Language
was a series that did work just as well, outside the Adult Education Centre, as
it's humour was so good, it did enable it to work
that well, but in the later series there were times when the action outside
didn't work quite as well, when they were away from the adult education centre,
but those scenes still had their moments. But for episode One:
The First Lesson, the whole of the action was constrained to the corridor, the
classroom, Miss Courtney’s Office, and the Canteen.
The First Lesson
started off in the grey metallic corridor and this was where we first made the
acquaintance of the Adult Education Centres'
caretaker: Sid. Sid could roughly be described as a non
descript man in his late Fifties, whose costume consisted of a cap, which covered
what was left of his hair. He was usually attired in a scruffy blue boilet suit, which had long seen better days. Sometimes,
the character Sid the caretaker, would be clad in grubby yellow overalls, which
again, had seen better days. Sid The Caretaker was
sweeping the floor of the corridor and he looked as miserable as sin. This was
when he first made the acquaintance of Jeremy Brown who had just stepped out of
the lift, and I did think when I first made his acquaintance, that he was a
very good looking dark haired man, in his early thirties. (I did think that the
character of Jeremy Brown was in his mid-twenties, and I was quite surprised to
discover that later on in the episode: When Did You Last See Your Father? that
the character of Jeremy Brown was thirty five years old, and even when I met
Barry Evans at Lichfield Civic Hall, I thought that
he looked remarkably good for his age, and he was forty nine at the time, but
he was actually thirty four, when he first played Jeremy Brown, but surprisingly
he was twenty four years old when he played Jamie MacGregor
in 'Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush', and Jamie MacGregor
was supposed to be seventeen years old, and the critic who reviewed 'Anybody
For Murder?' stated that Barry Evans had hardly changed since his first film,
and I was inclined to agree with the critic, at the time!) Jeremy was attired
in a long white coat, and he was carrying a brown briefcase, which was very
tatty, compared to the coat, and even though he did look a bit flustered, you can
tell instantly, that he was educated, polite and helpful and a hundred zillion
times more approachable, than Sid the caretaker, on sight, but Sid didn't look
at all that impressed, as he seemed more intent on getting the right kind of
shine to his floor and he was obviously used to seeing Jeremys'
type, around the building, over the years, that he has worked as caretaker, at
the Adult Education Centre. As Jeremy was eager to find out, where the
Principals office was, he asked Sid for directions, but he had a job to follow
his directions, because he told Jeremy where her office was in Cockney Rhyming
slang. I will briefly state, for any overseas Internet users, who come across
my pages, that Sid The Caretaker, is speaking in Cockney Rhyming slang, which only
the people of the East End of London use, for example: Eastenders! But these
days it tends to be spoken more by the older Eastenders, and that very few
young Eastenders use it, but it is a preserved dialect, which is a very proud
part of an East Enders upbringing, and even though I can follow Cockney Rhyming
slang, myself to a certain extent, if you haven't been brought up with it, you
soon tend to think of it, as a completely different language to English! For
example: Apples and Pears are: Stairs! Mince Pies are Eyes! But that is kiddies
stuff to my mind, if you have ever listened to a Cockney rhyming slang
conversation! And Sid did a Cockney rhyming slang conversation, in a later
episode, which even I found virtually impossible to follow! And you work out
later on, that Jeremy Brown, avoids Sid, as the series
goes on, because he thinks he is a bad influence on his students! Where I come
from, which is originally
Anyway, Jeremy
eventually finds Miss Courtneys' office, which is
just opposite him. Sid briefly warns him that he is going to be in for a hard
time, but Jeremy just shrugs it off. However, he soon realises
that Sid is absolutely right. Jeremy is indeed in for a hard time, because Miss
Courtney is a middle-aged spinster, and she isn't very good looking, which is
being kind really, to say the very least. The outfits that she wore were smart,
quite admittedly, but they mainly consisted of tweeds, and she always wore very
severe looking spectacles, and naturally she was a bit of a battleaxe! Jeremy
also got on to the wrong footing with her by addressing her as Mrs Courtney, and worse even than that, his sex went
against him, because quite simply he was a man! We later discover that Miss
Courtney is a very strong feminist indeed, and that she has been continuing the
quest for equality between men and women, ever since the Suffragette movement!
Seriously though, she does not like Jeremys' carefree
and cheerful attitude, but as the series went on, you do feel that she does
respect Jeremy as a teacher, but with the ignorance amongst his language
students, nearly always goes against him. In this episode Miss Courtney kindly
informs Jeremy that considering he is a man, she thinks that his teaching
qualifications seem reasonably good, despite the fact that he has only taught
at a comprehensive school, and again she also feels that as he has never taught
further education classes, that it may be for the best if she gives him a three
months trial. Jeremy is very dejected by her attitude obviously, but as he left
his previous teaching job, under trying circumstances (which I will go into a
bit more detail in the following episode: An Inspector Calls), he knows that he
has no choice, as he is desparate for the job, and
after he has finished grovelling to her, he decides
that there is no time like the present, and that he will take the class
immediately.
But as this is
only the very first episode of Mind Your Language, the teacher, Jeremy Brown,
is very naive, indeed, with regard, to what lies ahead for him, at this point,
in time! But after a time, you soon discover, that his
patience wears very thin, indeed, with regard, to all, that he has got to put
up with, via his English Language students!
PAGE LAST UPDATED: 30TH AUGUST 2014
MORE UPDATES COMING SOON!