Another fourth series episode of Please Sir!, another episode of cast changes...
Two new teachers - Mr Hurst and Miss Petting - arrive at Fenn Street. Mr Hurst (Bernard Holley) feels like he's seen it all before having taught many of the pupils at Weaver Street. By contrast the nervous and timid Miss Petting has only taught infants before and feels out of her depth. It's certainly a tough time to be joining as the Head's new rules on shorter hair for boys and longer skirts for girls are causing uproar and lead to a sit-in protest led by Stringer and his henchman Gobber.
This is a sound enough episode but yet more cast changes make the viewer wonder what is going on and suggest a show that is struggling to turn things around. It seems not dissimilar to a football team that keeps changing its line-up, convinced that some new players will turn things around. What we often see in both scenarios is there isn't an improvement and sometimes the results are worse because there isn't enough consistency. The new characters of Hurst and Petting show a little promise. Bernard Holley is a genial actor although his part in this episode is almost a straight one with little use of humour; Miss Petting is a rather different teacher to those seen before and offers more comic potential. No reason is given for these new arrivals and there is no mention of the whereabouts of the most recently-appointed teacher David Ffitchett-Brown (he did appear again once more but it seems odd to have no mention of him). Original writers Esmonde and Larbey wrote this episode so presumably took the lead in creating and introducing these newcomers, and maybe they felt again that the show needed new blood. That may be so but it's usually best to make the changes before a series or introduce newcomers more gradually.
The theme of protest and efforts to enforce - and challenge - more traditional standards was certainly topical at the time and is well enough handled. The pupils have more role than earlier in the series but even then it's only Stringer and Gobber who attract much focus. The character of Gobber remains poor but at least in this outing there is an attempt to develop his character a little more and highlight some of his insecurities about his learning problems and not just highlight his thuggishness.
This was pretty much the central cast that saw the programme through the rest of the series. Some stability therefore was in the offing but these characters seemed to be lacking the quality that made the first three series so appealing.