The History Boys (DVD)

When I sat down over Christmas 2007 to watch a BBC showing of "The History Boys", I did so with no real expectations. I was aware it was written by Alan Bennett, who was someone I was aware of, but whose work had largely passed me by. I also knew that it had started life as a highly successful play, but that was about the extent of my knowledge. I thought it would make for acceptable enough background noise as I read my book, never thinking that not only would the book be forgotten that night, but that the DVD would soon go straight onto my Amazon Wishlist and soon become part of my collection. In 1980s Sheffield, eight students at Cutler's ...  Read the complete review

The History Boys are a group of grammar school lads set on going to Oxbridge after their A-levels. Set in Sheffield back in 1983, their intellect burns brightly fueled by the unorthodox teaching methods of their general studies tutor, Hector (Richard Griffiths). The headmaster (Clive Merrison) is keen to get as many of the lads through to the best universities as possible and so hires Mr Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore) to help them with their preparation for the extra exams involved. Crowther, Posner, Dakin, Timms, Akthar, Lockwood, Scripps, and Rudge all find that they have to adapt to a radically different way of thinking with Irwin's emphasis on spin rather than truth ...  Read the complete review

The chance of a northern comprehensive six former getting into Oxbridge when Alan Bennet wrote his iconic stage play was about 16-1. Today, where one in three kids are going on to higher education, that ratio has actually risen to 20-1. If you're working class and living in a tower block it rises to 100-1. Nothing, it seems, has changed in class ridden Britain, especially now students have to pay for university ( the parents that is) and so why this movie is just as relevant today as it ever was. Although Bennett's classic uses the central premise of grammar school kids trying to get on and into the private upper class finishing school that is Oxbridge, ...  Read the complete review

Did anyone ever tell you that your schooldays would be the happiest days of your life? Anyone who still continues to subscribe to such nonsense will love this veritable tuck shop full of golden reminiscenses, of sixth form chumminess, matey teachers and lessons that involve no work at all. The premise is of a group of eight students at the fictional Cutlers boys' grammar school in Yorkshire who have returned for an extra term of tuition designed to get them through the Oxbridge entrance examinations. This is the brainchild of ambitious headmaster Felix (Clive Merrison) who hires Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore), a young contract teacher, to assist Mr Hector ...  Read the complete review

Directed by Nicholas Hytner Play/Screenplay by Alan Bennett Comedy / Drama Released 13th October, 2006 (UK) MAIN CAST: Samuel Anderson as Crowther James Corden as Timms Stephen Campbell Moore as Irwin Richard Griffiths as Hector Andrew Knott as Lockwood Russell Tovey as Rudge Jamie Parker as Scripps Dominic Cooper as Dakin Samuel Barnett as Posner SUMMARY: Having managed excellent results in their A levels, and possessing what it takes to make it into the prestigious schools of Oxford and Cambridge in 1980's England, a group of history pupils attending a ...  Read the complete review