The first of a new comedy series centred round a comprehensive school, starring David Bamber, John Wells

Eric Slatt, deputy head at Galfast High School, dreams of running his own school.
See today's choices.

[Photo caption] David Bamber goes back to school in a new comedy, Chalk

Chalk 9.30pm BBC1
Galfast High school - 809 pupils and 36 teachers - is a typical modern concrete comprehensive: a temple to noise pollution at break times and eerily quiet at others.

The school provides the setting for BBC1's new comedy Chalk, a tale of marginally sane teachers and, to a lesser extent, their exasperated pupils.
Headmaster Richard Nixon (John Wells) spends this episode in a cupboard - when he's not scaling the exterior of the building - while his deputy Eric Slatt (David Bamber) attempts to maintain calm in a manic, undignified manner.

Chalk is a sitcom of characters and situation in the Fawlty Towers mould, and it may be significant that BBC1 has commissioned a second series before this first has even been aired.

David Bamber steps into the Spotlight on page 9