Looking back over Vicki Pepperdine's credit history I noticed "The Educatoror" as one that I'd never heard of but whose title was amusing enough for me to take a look into. I soon discovered that it was part of Channel 4's "Comedy Blap" series, where a number of comedy talents are given a small budget to make teasers, or proof of concepts, for original shows, which then the channel can expand into a full series. It's worked for "Stath Lets Flats", "Chewing Gum" and "We are Lady Parts" but "The Educatoror" is one that did not progress any further.
Arun Jason (Paul G Raymond) is a Cambridge Educated teacher, who leaves a private school to teach English at an all-girls school in East London. Though seen as a diversity hire by his head teacher, Liz Church (Vicki Pepperdine) he struggles to connect with his class who immediately run rings around him thanks to his soft personality and posh upbringing. It falls to his fellow teacher, Charlotte Baines (Jessica Knappett) to reign the class in.
Though the guide says that there are three episodes of the show, each has a run time of less than 5 minutes and, to be fair, it's difficult to form a valid opinion of what a series might become on what is around 12 minutes of content. That said, it seems like a relatively sound concept for a show. Paul Raymond, and Luke Manning (who also appears in the show as I. T. teacher Clive Watts) act as both writer and director on the run and its directed in a safe, but professional style. They hired two talented co-stars in Knappett and Pepperdine who are excellent, as are the various students.
Familiarity might be the shows real problem. In 2017 we were just a couple of years removed from "Bad Education", Jack Whitehall's comedy about a posh teacher who is dominated by his savvy class but in love with his capable fellow teacher. Though there were certainly other avenues this version could have explored, it's hard not to see the similarities too.
I chuckled a couple of times watching these but there's not enough here to suggest that we've missed out on a classic sitcom.
