Chalk is a British television sitcom set in a comprehensive school named Galfast High. Two series, both written by Steven Moffat, were broadcast on BBC1 in 1997. Like Moffat's earlier sitcom Joking Apart, Chalk was produced by Andre Ptaszynski for Pola Jones.
The series focuses upon deputy headteacher Eric Slatt (David Bamber), permanently stressed over the chaos he creates both by himself and some of his eccentric staff. His wife Janet (Geraldine Fitzgerald) and new English teacher Suzy Travis (Nicola Walker) attempt to help him solve the problems.
Because of the very good reaction of the studio audience, a second series was commissioned before the first had been broadcast. However, journalists were critical of the show, highlighting stylistic similarities to Fawlty Towers. Some members of the teaching profession and its unions objected to the negative representation of teachers and the comprehensive system. The second series did not receive a stable broadcast slot, with many episodes aired after 10pm. The first series was released on DVD in December 2008.
Production
Inception
Steven Moffat left his job as an English teacher at Cowdenknowes High in Greenock to write the BAFTA Award-winning show Press Gang. However, its high cost and changes in the executive structure at Central Independent Television meant that the show might not be recommissioned after its second series. As the writer wondered what to do next and was worried about future employment, Bob Spiers, Press Gangs primary director, suggested that he meet with producer Andre Ptaszynski to discuss writing a sitcom. Inspired by his experience in education (in addition to his own former career, his father was a headteacher), That idea became Joking Apart, which received low audience figures but a high rating on the Appreciation Index. In an interview with The Herald, Moffat reflected on the nature of writing from experience: "I don't think you have an alternative to writing about what you know. You've no life experience to go on other than your own. Even if you're writing something you think is entirely remote from you - Star Trek, for instance - you'll find the finished result is actually very close to your own experience. That's not a conscious decision a writer makes - it's an inevitability."
After the second series of Joking Apart had been transmitted, Ptaszynski revived Moffat's original idea about a sitcom set in a school. In an article for The Guardian newspaper, writer and comedian Richard Herring observed that Moffat has not used the show "as a soapbox from which to satirise the government’s educational policy, preferring to concentrate on being funny ... yet beneath it all is a much more broadly satirical swipe at the implicit pointlessness of the way we are educated." For this article, Moffat told Herring:
<blockquote>Secondary School is a big waste of time. What are French teachers doing? None of us can speak French. How much maths can you do? Do you know any history? What is the point in training people to do things that none of us can do? The system seems designed to qualify you for the Indian Civil Service in 1911. We all leave school unable to drive! Now that would be quite handy.</blockquote>
The Independent reported that Moffat "stresses that Chalk is a sitcom, not some banner-waving, agitprop pamphlet", but is still "passionate about education". Moffat criticises "the <nowiki>[</nowiki>Conservative<nowiki>]</nowiki> government talk about the specially talented needing more education, but that's absurd, the equivalent of hospitals for the healthy." The cast recall that director Juliet May provided a calm working environment; rather than losing her temper when things went wrong, she instead focussed everyone's mind on how to solve the problem.</blockquote>
The BBC commissioned a second series based on the studio audience reactions during recordings. As development on series two had reached a relatively late stage when the first had received negative reviews upon transmission, it was too late to cancel the production. The cast and crew, then, had to work on a show which they knew was widely disliked. Moffat reflects on the experience: "There's no feeling on earth like working on a show that you know is doomed and already tanking."
The expense and restrictions placed upon child actors limited the number of pupils that could be featured. The non-speaking extras had to be licensed, a process that took four weeks, providing difficulties for assistant director Stacey Adair. The episode "Both Called Eric" features Antony Costa as one of the pupils, one of his earliest TV roles before going on to appear in Grange Hill and in the boy band Blue.
Episodes
The sitcom is based at the fictional comprehensive school Galfast High. It begins with the arrival of the young new English teacher Suzie Travis (Nicola Walker). She immediately encounters the chaos of the school, a chaos enhanced by the manic Deputy Head Eric Slatt (David Bamber).
Moffat integrated many references to secondary characters and locations from his previous BAFTA winning show Press Gang into Chalk. For instance, the Chalk character Eric Slatt refers to his neighbouring school Norbridge High, run by Mr Sullivan: these were the names of the school and deputy headmaster in Press Gang. The scene where Slatt is being given instructions by wire is taken from the unfilmed Press Gang movie Dead Line. In an interview with The New York Times, Moffat admitted that the video is inspired by his then-new partner, Sue Vertue, finding a similar video in their VCR.
Characters
Eric Slatt (David Bamber) is the deputy headmaster of Galfast High, who seems to "deepen the many crises that face the school (most of Slatt’s own making)". Jeff Evans, writing in The Penguin TV Companion, observed that "Slatt is certainly keen, but regrettably he is also unbalanced, tactless, clumsy, snobby, sarcastic, at times pointlessly aggressive and always prone to appalling errors of judgment (an academic version of Basil Fawlty, it was widely noted)". Nicola Walker commented that viewers sympathise with Slatt because he is in charge of a bunch of lunatics. The press described Suzy as "the voice of sanity at Galfast High and the thorn in Slatt's side."
Amanda Trippley (Amanda Boxer) is the neurotic music teacher.
Dan McGill (Martin Ball) is a young teacher who instantly develops a crush on Suzy when she arrives at the school, and attempts to date her throughout the series. The character is given most prominence in "The Staff Meeting" episode, which was written in order to save money by not having any guest actors. In this episode it is revealed that Dan has agreed to teach several subjects in order to keep his job. Suzy is dismayed to find that he invented an entire language when he became a foreign languages teacher, and then invented its country (Estranzia) when made a Geography teacher. However, the show was, as Mark Lawson summarised, "widely disliked". The BBC's publicity department compared Chalk to Fawlty Towers in the publicity materials. Critics, though, took exception to a new show being compared to such a renowned and respected programme. The cast point out that Fawlty Towers and Chalk are completely different shows, while Nicola Walker says that the comparison is like being asked to be "compared to a comedy God".
The first four episodes were transmitted at 21:30, but the final two episodes of the second series were moved to 22:20. Commenting on the second series, the Glasgow Herald said, "the manic depute<!-- Don't change spelling -- it's 'depute' in this source.--> head of Galfast High, Eric Slatt, is looking more and more like Basil Fawlty on a bad day. So are those of us who remain glued to it in ghoulish fascination to see if it can get any worse." Tabloid newspaper The Mirror published a damming review of the show's second series opener:
<blockquote>The head of comedy at Television Centre deserves six of the best for bringing back Chalk (BBC1) for a second term. If the opening episode of the new series is anything to go by, we are in for six of the worst half-hours of comedy in the history of television ... It is no surprise that the show has been relegated to a late slot. It is a watershed for smut. Some of the jokes were in the worst possible taste. The standards of comedy are so pitiful, Galfast High School should not have been given a grant from TV licence-payers' money and it is time it closed its gates for good. David Bamber ... deserves a better vehicle for his acting talents. He was lured into playing Eric Slatt because the character was supposed to be the classroom equivalent of Basil Fawlty. They are as different as Chalk and Cleese.</blockquote>
In an interview in the early 2000s, Moffat refused to even mention Chalk, joking that he might get attacked in the street. The first series received criticism from some teachers and teaching unions, who criticised the representation of their professions. Teachers, according to the Daily Record, complained that the show portrayed teachers as "mentally unstable", and deterred people from entering the profession. John Grillo, who played Mr Carkdale, recalls that he was appearing in a West End play at the time he was auditioning for the role; a fellow actor in the play was meant to be auditioning for Chalk but, having been a deputy head teacher earlier in his career, was so disgusted by the material that he refused to attend. The unions' derision actually inspired The Timess Matthew Bond to like the show. However, despite identifying "genuine humour" such as Slatt's rant against French teachers, Bond's review is largely critical. He concedes, "the teaching organisations, you see, are half right. Slatt has no credible basis in the teaching profession, but far more importantly he has no credible basis in the human race. And what we don't believe in, we rarely find funny."
Kevin Lygo, the show's executive producer and head of Independent Commissions Entertainment, who commissioned the series defending the show from the union's criticisms, saying: "Chalk is a comedy. Just as Ben Elton's Thin Blue Line does not reflect the modern police force nor The Vicar of Dibley the Church of England today, Chalk was never intended to reflect life in British schools." Moffat said that Chalk was written "just for larks" and was not intended as a serious political diatribe. However, Scotland on Sunday responded in a piece placing Chalk in the context of other television shows about schools: "where such dramas fall down is not in shirking some contrived social responsibility but in their playing up to so many daft myths about the teaching profession. They could almost be written by one of those strange politicians who deny there is an education crises in Britain." During a DVD audio commentary for Coupling, Moffat claims that "no-one bought it", including him.
The complete first series was released on Region 2 PAL DVD by ReplayDVD, the independent label that had released Joking Apart, on 15 December 2008.
Series 2 has received no home media release of any kind.