Written by Margaret Simpson. Tx 13th February 1979
It’s the day of the school play, Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Joseph (Andrew Stanton) is feeling the pressure. But is he really sick or is it just nerves? But even though Andrew seems a little listless, others continue to put maximum effort into ensuring that everything goes right on the right.
None more so than Tucker, whose artistic side is displayed after he customises a bike to serve as Joseph’s chariot. But his well-intentioned efforts to ensure that everything is perfect means that he decides to skip Mr Keating’s maths class to finish off working on the bike – which naturally doesn’t go down very well with the intimidating teacher.
This is the first real chance we’ve had to see Mr Keating at work. Robert Hartley is spot on at portraying the type of teacher that every school seemed to have – you just know there would never be any disruption in his class as he’d have no qualms in issuing detentions to any miscreants. He does so to Tucker when he tracks him down and after the boy complains that this means he’ll miss his tea, Mr Keating remorselessly tells him that he’ll just have to miss his tea!
Aside from enjoying a lengthy acting career, from the early 1950’s to the early 1990’s, he also spent the latter part of his career, during the 1980’s and 1990’s, composing music for various television series (including all fourteen episodes of the Keith Barron vehicle Haggard).
If Andrew’s complaints of feeling sick and his flat-as-a-pancake singing in the final rehearsals aren’t enough to drive Mr Sutcliffe to despair, then there’s worse to come. Jackie Heron and her friends, having been irritated at being put into detention by Miss Summers, decide to wreck the props and costumes for the play. Tucker’s chariot is damaged and paint is thrown over the coat of many colours as well as the scenery.
It’s Tucker who discovers the devastation, closely followed by Mr Sutcliffe who instantly decides that Tucker must have been responsible. Thankfully, Miss Summers also turns up and is able to convince Mr Sutcliffe that there’s no way that Tucker would have done this – he certainly wouldn’t have damaged his own bike, not after all the hard work he put into it.
James Wynn has some good comedy moments in this scene. They work especially well since Mr Sutcliffe is usually a rather laid-back person – but with everything collapsing in disaster around him, the increasing irritation he feels (only compounded when he sits down on Tucker’s chips!) rings the changes somewhat.
As might be expected, it all works out fine in the end – Tucker repairs the bike and he manages to find a replacement coat. Although it comes as a surprise to his mother when she realises that Tucker’s taken one of her coats without asking. But as so often with Peter Jenkins, she regards him more with indulgence than irritation.
Archive Television Musings 
It’s finally time for the school’s production of ‘Joseph’s Technicolor Dreamcoat’, providing another first for the series – the big school production, complete with inevitable problems that go with it, although more ordinarily we’d see this sort of episode at the end of a series as the big finale.
And I have to confess, despite my always generally preferring the more light-hearted or comedic storylines in the series over the bigger hitting ones (although not so much in cases of hidden donkeys or missing bikes…!), I’ve generally never been as keen on these sorts of episodes. I don’t know why, as all my life I’ve had an interesting in acting and behind the scenes work, have had several stints working in the industry. Maybe it’s just because, in this case, it’s a musical, and I’m a rare breed that hates musicals.
That’s not to say it’s unwatchable, far from it. For all of Tucker’s mischief making and misguided escapades, it’s nice to see when he’s genuinely so enthusiastic about something, with the production a good good chance for him to display his artistic skills. Even if he does try and use it as an excuse to get out of a few classes!
The episode also marks the debut of Robert Hartley as maths teacher Mr. Keating in the series. Well played by Hartley, Keating is a very believable teacher – strict and no nonsense (in some ways, arguably, he might be seen as a vague forerunner to the infamous Mr. Bronson, but Keating is simply strict, not as draconian as Bronson would be); He’s the sort of teacher many of us would have encountered, and yet at the same time, even when this episode was first broadcast in February 1979, he was already somewhat a teacher harking back to an previous generation in his mannerisms. We never got any backstory on him, but I’ve always imagined him to have been a teacher at a disciplined grammar school; as Grange Hill entered the comprehensive system (which we are given hints wasn’t that long prior to the start of the series), he maybe had been swallowed up into a quite different system, with very different standards and expectations.
Hartley is always very watchable, in fact I always feel he has a certain touch of ‘Doctor Who’ about him – certainly many of his mannerisms aren’t too dissimilar to that of William Hartnell. It’s interesting to consider how Hartley would go to to assume a slightly bigger role in ‘Grange Hill’ than initially expected when Sean Arnold didn’t return for Series Three, leaving Keating to effectively fill Mr. Llewelyn’s shoes as the headmaster himself was always unavailable for some flimsy reason or other!
From first appearances, it’s also final appearances, from original GH bully-of-sorts Jackie Heron and her cronies, with Jackie, naturally, smashing up the production’s sets and props. Although Jackie was always intended as a bully (well, to selected targets at least, there were others she’d never dare stand up to!), I always found her somewhat humorous thanks to Miriam Mann’s rather well spoken delivery!
There’s also some good teacher scenes in this one, with Mr. Sutcliffe in full on stress head mode (even accusing Tucker of being responsible for the vandalism), and the rather lovely Miss Summers, the level-headed voice of reason and who, admirably, defends Tucker, knowing he wouldn’t have done it. Considering how in Series One, Mr. Mitchell was the only teacher seen with any real regularity (there were a couple of minor others here and there), it’s interesting to see how by this point in S2 the cast of teachers has broadened and developing their own distinct characteristics.
Predictably, the production itself does go fairly well in the end, bar one or two hiccups, and also serves to sow the seeds with Suzi’s ever-critical mother, a storyline which will come to the fore in a few episodes time. In fact, there’s quite a few parents on parade her to see ‘Joseph’ – including Andrew’s father, the only time (unless I’m mistaken) we ever actually see him.
The episode’s pay-off is amusing too – after Joseph’s coat was damaged by Jackie, Tucker has improvised and got hold of another coat to modify. At the end of the episode we find it was his mother’s own coat! This nicely sums up how Tucker will often do what it takes for what he sees as a good cause, even if via misguided methods – and it also brings back memories of how he accidentally sold Justin’s mother’s coat in the jumble sale earlier in Series Two. Conclusion: Never leave your coat unguarded when Tucker Jenkins is around!!
LikeLike
It’s finally time for the school’s production of ‘Joseph’s Technicolor Dreamcoat’, providing another first for the series – the big school production, complete with inevitable problems that go with it, although more ordinarily we’d see this sort of episode at the end of a series as the big finale.
And I have to confess, despite my always generally preferring the more light-hearted or comedic storylines in the series over the bigger hitting ones (although not so much in cases of hidden donkeys or missing bikes…!), I’ve generally never been as keen on these sorts of episodes. I don’t know why, as all my life I’ve had an interesting in acting and behind the scenes work, have had several stints working in the industry. Maybe it’s just because, in this case, it’s a musical, and I’m a rare breed that hates musicals.
That’s not to say it’s unwatchable, far from it. For all of Tucker’s mischief making and misguided escapades, it’s nice to see when he’s genuinely so enthusiastic about something, with the production a good good chance for him to display his artistic skills. Even if he does try and use it as an excuse to get out of a few classes!
The episode also marks the debut of Robert Hartley as maths teacher Mr. Keating in the series. Well played by Hartley, Keating is a very believable teacher – strict and no nonsense (in some ways, arguably, he might be seen as a vague forerunner to the infamous Mr. Bronson, but Keating is simply strict, not as draconian as Bronson would be); He’s the sort of teacher many of us would have encountered, and yet at the same time, even when this episode was first broadcast in February 1979, he was already somewhat a teacher harking back to an previous generation in his mannerisms. We never got any backstory on him, but I’ve always imagined him to have been a teacher at a disciplined grammar school; as Grange Hill entered the comprehensive system (which we are given hints wasn’t that long prior to the start of the series), he maybe had been swallowed up into a quite different system, with very different standards and expectations.
Hartley is always very watchable, in fact I always feel he has a certain touch of ‘Doctor Who’ about him – certainly many of his mannerisms aren’t too dissimilar to that of William Hartnell. It’s interesting to consider how Hartley would go to to assume a slightly bigger role in ‘Grange Hill’ than initially expected when Sean Arnold didn’t return for Series Three, leaving Keating to effectively fill Mr. Llewelyn’s shoes as the headmaster himself was always unavailable for some flimsy reason or other!
From first appearances, it’s also final appearances, from original GH bully-of-sorts Jackie Heron and her cronies, with Jackie, naturally, smashing up the production’s sets and props. Although Jackie was always intended as a bully (well, to selected targets at least, there were others she’d never dare stand up to!), I always found her somewhat humorous thanks to Miriam Mann’s rather well spoken delivery!
There’s also some good teacher scenes in this one, with Mr. Sutcliffe in full on stress head mode (even accusing Tucker of being responsible for the vandalism), and the rather lovely Miss Summers, the level-headed voice of reason and who, admirably, defends Tucker, knowing he wouldn’t have done it. Considering how in Series One, Mr. Mitchell was the only teacher seen with any real regularity (there were a couple of minor others here and there), it’s interesting to see how by this point in S2 the cast of teachers has broadened and developing their own distinct characteristics.
Predictably, the production itself does go fairly well in the end, bar one or two hiccups, and also serves to sow the seeds with Suzi’s ever-critical mother, a storyline which will come to the fore in a few episodes time. In fact, there’s quite a few parents on parade her to see ‘Joseph’ – including Andrew’s father, the only time (unless I’m mistaken) we ever actually see him.
The episode’s pay-off is amusing too – after Joseph’s coat was damaged by Jackie, Tucker has improvised and got hold of another coat to modify. At the end of the episode we find it was his mother’s own coat! This nicely sums up how Tucker will often do what it takes for what he sees as a good cause, even if via misguided methods – and it also brings back memories of how he accidentally sold Justin’s mother’s coat in the jumble sale earlier in Series Two. Conclusion: Never leave your coat unguarded when Tucker Jenkins is around!!
LikeLike