Top of the class... (Teachers - Series 2 (DVD))

Member Name: Daniel K

Product:	Teachers - Series 2 (DVD)
Date:	17/05/05 (1532 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny, Good storylines, Characters

Disadvantages: Show may not be to everyone's taste, Not enough extras on DVD

'Teachers' is a great Comedy/Drama series set in a Bristol school, and follows the lives of a group of young teachers in and outside of school. It was shown on Channel 4, and has now finished after four series. This is a review of the second series DVD, which was released back in 2003.

The second series of Teachers was originally broadcast on Channel 4 in 2002, and the DVD features all ten episodes of this series, spread over three discs; Episodes 1-4 on Disc one, Episodes 5-8 on Disc two, and Episodes 9, 10 and 'extras' on Disc three. Each episode of Teachers lasts around 45 minutes.
The front of this DVD has a picture of the main characters in this series - Simon, Brian, Kurt, Penny, Jenny, Susan, and JP.

There is also a different cast to the first series, with a couple of new characters added in this series. The cast of Series Two, and what they do, is as follows:-

Andrew Lincoln as Simon Casey - A childish but charming English teacher.
Raquel Cassidy as Susan Gately - The icy psychology teacher.
Nina Sosanya as Jenny - A tough, uptight, sensible English teacher.
Navin Chowdhry as Kurt McKenna - A teacher of Computer studies.
Adrian Bower as Brian Steadman - The laddish but sweet PE/Geography teacher.
Gillian Bevan as Clare aka Mrs Hunter - The headmistress.
Ursula Holden Gill as Carol - Clare’s shy, whispering assistant who has wonky eyes and wears thick glasses.
Ellen Thomas as Liz -The gossipy secretary.
Lloyd McGuire as Bob Porter - The middle-aged head of department.
Shaun Evans as John Paul 'JP' Keating - A new teacher in series two.
Tamzin Malleson as Penny Neville - A new English teacher in series two.
James Lance as Matt - A new English teacher, Simon's replacement; only in episode ten.

The descriptions for what happens in each episode on Series two is as follows:-

Episode One: Simon, Brian and Kurt arrive home from a holiday in Tenerife to begin a new year at Summerdown school. Back at school, there are two new teachers starting - language tutor JP, and Penny, an English teacher. A newly-divorced Susan takes a fancy to JP, until he makes a revalation that shatters her hopes of romance. Carol has had a makeover, but Kurt still wants to dump her. Brian is now teaching geography part-time, and complains about pupil Kayla, who's tormenting him - little realising she's Liz's daughter! Jenny is still as tough and efficient as ever.

Episode Two: JP becomes popular with the rest of the staff, much to Simon's annoyance, and refuses to drink with the gang when they take up JP's suggestion of a night out at a karaoke bar. Carol won't accept she's been dumped by Kurt, and bombards him with text messages, and even resorts to a karaoke plea. Penny tries to help Kurt let Carol down gently, but it's Jenny's decisive action that helps him. Penny also reveals she's had a boob job, and Brian can't stop hiccupping whenever he sees her!

Episode Three: Simon has gone for weeks without sex, and is getting desperate. An arsonist pupil is causing havoc, so a 'school psychologist' called Alec is called in - but he ends up dealing with the teachers (well, Brian and Kurt's) own problems, as well as having noisy sex with Jenny. So noisy that Susan wants to move out, and considers sharing with Simon.

Episode Four: Susan changes her mind about sharing with Simon, so he moves back in with his dad and JP moves in with Brian and Kurt. When JP reveals he's gay, Kurt and Simon try to convince Brian that he is gay, so he starts to get paranoid about it. Meanwhile, Jenny fails to get a good response to her careers day, and Simon is disappointed in his pupils 'dull' choices of careers.

Episode Five: Alec is driving Susan mad by walking around the flat naked, having lots of noisy sex with Jenny, as well as causing her to skive off work. Brian and Kurt are perturbed when JP brings another man back to the flat, and Penny starts to exploit other members of staff with her sob stories.

Episode Six: Everyone is fed up with manipulative Penny, except for Bob. He thinks she fancies him, so gets himself a tan, leather jacket and a personal trainer (Brian); but no-one is brave enough to tell him he's making a fool of himself. Also, Clare introduces 'open surgery' sessions, where teachers deal with pupils problems, and Brian becomes upset when Kayla won't come to him for advice.

Episode Seven: Clare is keen to ram home the message about contraception, so she gets a schoolgirl mother to give a talk to the pupils of Summerdown school, and when Susan is left holding her baby, she begins to get broody. Brian, Kurt and Simon all offer to father Susan's child, but get turned down. Then Susan meets the single mother of a pupil and changes her mind about starting a family. Meanwhile, Brian gets into trouble with Liz for telling Kayla's class about the breeding habits of sheep, Carol sets her sights on a geeky new lab technician, and Penny still can't master the photocopier.

Episode Eight: Jenny is finding life too dull and predictable, especially with Alec, and Simon realises he's achieving nothing at the school, and decides to take decisive action about it. Meanwhile, Carol becomes the holder of the stationery cupboard key.

Episode Nine: Simon has fled to South America, leaving his unhappy colleagues, mainly Penny, to cover his lessons. Jenny has ditched Alec and throws herself into work, but her plan about monitoring pupils with problems fails to get much support. Brian and Kurt try to be more assertive with the help of a book, and Penny reduces Liz to tears when their feud gets worse.

Episode Ten: Christmas has nearly arrived, and Simon's replacement, Matt Harvey, arrives at the school. There's a drunken end-of-year school party, after which most of the cast end up sleeping with each other! Brian ends up making Kayla cry, and Kurt tries to win back Carol.

Overall, Series Two is a good series, and pretty funny, but I don't think it is the best series of Teachers. Everything I associate with Teachers was present in this series too, such as the soundtrack of songs (which can be bought on CD separately) on each episode, the usual antics of the cast, and the weird stuff going on in the background of each scene by pupils, other staff members, and the donkey! The second series is seen as more 'typical' of what Teachers is about, with more emphasis on teaching than in the third and fourth series, and plenty of trips down the pub as well!

Some of the faults with this package is that some of the storylines are okay, but not always brilliant; the extras on this DVD are a little thin, as they only really comprise a special feature with cast interviews about the show, which only lasts about 15 minutes; also three of the characters disappeared at the end of this series - with no explanation! - leading to continuity errors later on in the show. It would have been nice to know what happens to them, at least in the next series.

But apart from that, this is a really good DVD, which I'd recommend to fans of the show or if you enjoy good comedy-drama shows. But if you haven't seen the show before, start with the first series DVD, as it may not make sense. This DVD cost me around £21.99, which I think is pretty good value for a show like Teachers.

Thanks for Reading! :-)

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