Set in a London secondary modern school and televised between 1968 and 1972, the situation comedy Please Sir! was produced for the Independent Television (ITV) network by the newly formed company London Weekend Television (LWT). Popular with audiences and recognised by many critics as an innovative contribution to the sitcom genre as it evolved during the late 1960s, Please Sir! has nevertheless received remarkably little sustained attention from scholars. That silence is filled by this volume.
Please Sir! featured the lives of young working-class people in a distinctive manner that blended realism and romanticism. In an engaging narrative, Gillian Mitchell explores the programme’s background, its comedic style, cast of characters and depictions of contemporary issues, from educational matters to questions of gender, generation, race and ethnicity. She explores the positive contribution of LWT’s early ambitions to the success of Please Sir!, then turns to the impact on the programme’s immediate and long-term reputation of crises that afflicted LWT as it failed in its audacious bid to alter the ‘popular’ image of ITV with its highbrow programming. Ultimately, the book argues that Please Sir! reveals much about the social, cultural and televisual era in which it was produced.