A 70-minute British TV drama where the real lesson is: academia eats its young.
Frank Windsor plays the titular head of a school with an increasingly tenuous grip on his position. Intriguingly, given that that it was made 40 years ago, Headnaster shows how little has changed in teaching, given its focus on the conflict between old and modern teaching methods, as well as the eternal jockeying for position amongst teaching staff.
Acting
Frank Windsor's crumbling dignity in every sigh.
Direction
Anthony Page makes staff rooms feel like battlefields.
Director
Anthony Page
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made for ITV's 'Playhouse' strand, this exemplifies the 'quota quickie' TV drama boom of 1970s Britain, when networks filled slots with cheap, prestige-adjacent content.
Anthony Page would later direct 'The Missiles of October' and 'The Lady in the Van' — this early TV work shows his knack for claustrophobic institutional power struggles.
GB
