David Walliams will be returning to the BBC later this year with new comedy, Big School. However, instead of his usual sketch show antics with Matt Lukas, Big School is a sitcom set in the confines of a secondary school in middle England with Walliams going it alone on the BBC1 show.
Created by Walliams and co-written with the writing team know as the Dawson Brothers (Steve Dawson, Andrew Dawson and their childhood friend Tim Inman) the new sitcom aired on Friday (16th August 2013) with six 30 minute episodes planned for series 1. Filming began earlier in 2013 with Jo Sargent producing, Mark Freeland as the executive producer and Tony Dow (Only Fools And Horses, Nighty Night) in the director’s chair.
Walliams won’t be entirely on his own, though, as the team has recruited Catherine Tate (Dr Who) to star alongside him with Philip Glenister (Life On Mars, Mad Dogs), Francis de la Tour (Rising Damp) and Joanna Scanlan (The Thick Of It). They’ll joined by Steve Speirs (Extras, Cemetery Junction) and Daniel Rigby (Black Mirror).
The six part series takes place in fictional secondary school, Greybridge School, as Deputy Head of Chemistry Mr Church (Walliams) is about to throw in the towel on his teaching career. However, the arrival of a very enthusiastic new French teacher called Miss Postern (Tate) rekindles both his love of the school and a romantic spark that burns brighter than any Bunsen burner, keeping him in his role.
He’s not the only one to take a liking to the new cunning French linguist though. P.E. teacher, Mr Gunn (Glenister), also sets his sights on Miss Postern, but he has a route one approach to wooing the ladies, which he likes to call “seducting”. With the challenge of Mr Gunn and his own bumbling ways to contend with, unrequited love seems to be Mr Church’s only real option.
There are lots of other typical school characters to add to the dysfunctional staff room, including the tough talking headmistress, Ms Baron (de la Tour), a jaded geography teacher called Mr Barber (Speirs) whose main focus is the number of days left until his retirement, and a busybody drama teacher called Mrs Klebb (Scanlan).
To add to the mix there’s also the too cool for school music teacher, Mr Martin (Rigby), who relentlessly clings to the concept of being accepted by the kids as one of their own and the possibility of being a rock legend one day, as well as Mr Church’s mute adoring lab assistant Pat (Julie Wallace) and the senile Head of Chemistry, Mr Hubble (James Greene).
The first episode of Big School kicked off with Mr Church deciding to stay at the school and taking the advice of a pupil, brilliantly called Manyou, in an attempt to get Miss Postern’s romantic attention.
