Tales Out of School - Four Films by David Leland [DVD]

One can only sadly concur with the previous reviewer regarding the lamentable state of current tv fiction drama after watching these deeply affecting and bracingly provocative dramas written by David Leland in 1981.Remarkably, he was given a completely free hand at ITV Central by fearless Scum producer Margaret Mathieson to fill four or five hours of airtime on the subject of the education system.
Made in Britain speaks for itself and unsurprisingly, considering Alan Clarke's direction and Tim Roth's performance, is the most renowned and almost certainly the best of the four.
Birth of a Nation, an ambitious, subversive and wonderfully funny dissection of life in an overburdened London comprehensive, covering issues such as bullying, corporal punishment and sex education is directed by Mike (Four Weddings) Newell.His ensemble work, with particular regard to the performances of Jim Broadbent and Robert Stephens, is an absolute joy.
RHINO, an acronym for Really Here in Name Only, concerns a neglected teenage black girl at another London comprehensive, who regularly truants in order to look after her brother's abandoned baby.The film charts with searing honesty and wit, her rejection by the education system and her subsequent manipulation by the judicial and social care system.
Flying into the Wind offers a possible coda to the intolerable state of affairs in schools as they were then at the time of the Toxteth and Brixton riots exactly 30 years ago. Leland knew a family who were involved in a bitter struggle with the courts in order to educate their children at home and this film recounts with great detail and tenderness the ways in which the children learn without the need for any form of coercion. The always brilliant Graham Crowden plays the judge who visits the family's home in order to see their progress for himself. It is perhaps the most rhetorical of the films but it is never dogmatic and the ending (a montage of shots of school buildings at dawn and a zoom into a boy's face as he fails to sing All Things Bright and beautiful) sends a shiver through your being.
To declare my interest- I wrote and conceived the extras on the discs. By the way, the dvd and blu-rays look great-the source prints for the films-all shot on 35 mm-and transfers are all astonishingly good.

This collection of David Leland's four feature length films made in 1982 and screened in the following year is a timely reminder of the potential value that great TV can have on influencing cultural and political thinking. In these films Leland addresses a whole gamut of social issues including mandatory education, youth culture and rebellion, corporal punishment, youth detention centres, social workers and crime. The principal 'message' Leland is trying to convey (or, more accurately, question he is trying to pose) is whether the mandatory education system (as defined by the 1944 Education Act) needs necessarily to mean school education according to a defined curriculum, or whether education at home can also be effective. It is particularly interesting to consider whether the issues raised by Leland 30 years ago have changed materially through to today.

The four films each cover different elements of Leland's social and educational commentary, and can been seen as something of a logical progression. The first, Birth Of A Nation, is based on life in a comprehensive school and focuses on the pros and cons of corporal punishment and the challenges of engaging children in the education process (to the extent that maverick teacher Geoff Figg, brilliantly played by Jim Broadbent, conducts a lesson on masturbation!). The film also features superb performances by Robert Stephens as Vic Griffiths and Bruce Myers as the unfashionably progressive teacher Twentyman. Birth Of A Nation ends with a school riot, calling to mind Lindsay Anderson's masterpiece If.. The second film Flying Into The Wind was, for me, the least engaging of the four, and focuses on the Wyatt family's attempts to convince the authorities (including in court) that their decision to keep their children Laura and Michael out of school and to educate them (in things that really interest them) at home is a perfectly legitimate course of action. There are particularly good performances from the children (Prudence Oliver as Laura and Adrian Wagstaff as Michael) as well as from Graham Crowden as Judge Wood.

Leland, having diagnosed the potential 'problem' of the educational system, in the last two films then goes on to focus on two individuals that have 'fallen through the gap' in the system. RHINO (which stands for Really Here In Name Only) features 15-year old Angie (brilliantly played by Deltha McLeod), who constantly plays truant from school in order to look after her young nephew. Angie gradually becomes mired in a cycle of Education Welfare Officer and social worker visits, and eventually resorts to shoplifting and subsequent police assault. The film ends with a traumatic scene of Angie being forced to strip naked, and subjected to an invasive inspection at a Youth Detention Centre, providing a powerful example of how such an essentially well-meaning individual can suffer humiliation at the hands of the 'system'. On the other hand, Made In Britain, the fourth film in the series (and the most famous) is directed by Alan Clarke, and features Tim Roth delivering a brilliant and visceral performance of defiance as delinquent 16-year old Trevor, a racist, and yet apparently intelligent and articulate, skinhead who has dropped out of society and is happy with his lot. The film also features great performances from Eric Richards as Trevor's social worker Harry Parker and from Geoffrey Hutchings as the superintendent who maps out Trevor's likely nihilistic future in the film's central 20-minute scene set in an interrogation room. Punk band The Exploited provide the film's entirely appropriate theme song in UK82, whose lyrics describe with remarkable accuracy Trevor's predicament.

In terms of the influences and style of Leland's films they remind me at various points of the great British filmmakers Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, and, in particular, the films Kes and Meantime for their focus on schooling and social services. The main difference for me is that Leland's films have less humour than do those of Leigh and Loach, something I put down to the unwavering seriousness with which he considers the issues addressed in the films. Made in Britain, in particular, is quite simply the most convincing portrayal of juvenile deliquency ever put on screen - altough Leland makes the point that Trevor's character (and deliquency) has been shaped by his social upbringing. Other comparators for such a subject would be Alan Clarke's Scum and Peter Mullan's recent NEDS.

The DVD also features two excellent extras - one addressing all four films in the Tales Out Of School series, narrated by Leland and involving a Q&A session at a Stoke Newington school in 2011 - and the second is a documentary focusing on Made In Britain, and featuring input from some of the actors appearing in the film, as well as from Stephen Frears and David Hare.

This collection is a landmark TV production and is essential viewing.

Tales Out Of School - Four Films by David Leland [Blu-ray] [1983]
I bought this Blu ray release as a pre-order and it is one I have watched. These films are feature length titles that I don't believe I have seen before and may not have TV screened in Australia. Being TV films I was not expecting outstanding quality but in fact I got it. The Blu Ray color quality is truly superb and the audio likewise. The original elements must have been in good order. As for the films I enjoyed them all but I think the first story was by far the best and is certainly one I look forward to seeing again soon. I watch these Blu Ray films on a 46inch Panasonic Plasma screen. Would rate it the best Blu Ray from TV elements over 20 years old in my expanding Blu Ray collection currently.