| Network: | Channel 4 |
| Creator: | Tim Loane |
| Executive Producer: | Jane Fallon |
| Starring: | Andrew Lincoln Adrian Bower Raquel Cassidy Navin Chowdhry Nina Sosanya Gillian Bevan Ursula Holden-Gill Lloyd McGuire Ellen Thomas Tamzin Malleson James Lance Vicky Hall Lee Williams Mathew Horne James Corden |
| Company: | Tiger Aspect Productions |
| Runtime: | 45-50 minutes |
| Num Series: | 4 |
| Num Episodes: | 40 |
| List Episodes: | List of Teachers (British TV series) episodes |
| Endtheme: | The Boy with the Arab Strap by Belle and Sebastian |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Related: | Teachers |
Teachers is a British television comedy-drama series, created by Tim Loane and originally shown on Channel 4. The series follows a group of secondary school teachers in their daily lives.[1]
In the first series, probationary teacher Simon Casey (Andrew Lincoln) is the protagonist; later series have an ensemble cast. The cast changes dramatically, with few original characters remaining by the fourth series. While some of these disappearances are explained, others are not.
The first three series are set in the fictional Summerdown Comprehensive, which merges with another school in the fourth series to form Wattkins School. The first three series were filmed at the former Merrywood School and the fourth was filmed at the former Lockleaze school in Bristol, England.
Teachers was nominated for six BAFTA awards between 2002 and 2004, and was nominated for Best Comedy Drama at the British Comedy Awards in 2003. In January 2005, after a muted reception to the fourth series, Channel 4 announced that Teachers would not continue for a fifth series. A short lived American version was aired in 2006.
Since mid-2020 the series has been available on UK and Australian Netflix. The series is also available on All 4 and PlutoTV streaming service.
See main article: List of Teachers (British TV series) episodes.
Like many sitcoms Teachers had certain themes that it maintained through every episode. These included:
Every episode featured contemporary music, usually with clips of at least five songs (regularly including the bands The Bluetones, Terrorvision, The Soundtrack of our Lives, The Killers, The Darkness, Shed Seven, Feeder, The Dandy Warhols, Starsailor, Mercury Rev, The Hives, Athlete, I Am Kloot, The Libertines, Ash, and Supergrass), and the soundtrack to all four series has been released on CD by the shop of Channel 4.
The theme tune is the solo section of The Boy With The Arab Strap by Belle and Sebastian.
Viewing figures available from BARB.[2]
| Series | Timeslot | Episodes | First aired | Last aired | Rank | Avg. viewers (millions) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Viewers (millions) | Date | Viewers (millions) | ||||||
| 1 | Wednesday 9:00 pm | 8 | 2.65 | 2.23 | N/A | N/A | |||
| 2 | 10 | 2.62 | 2.53 | 7 | 2.37 | ||||
| 3 | 13 | 2.74 | 2.32 | 11 | 2.33 | ||||
| 4 | Tuesday 10:00 pm | 9 | 2.11 | 1.80 | N/A | N/A | |||
| Series | Release date | No. of discs | BBFC rating | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VHS | Region 2 DVD | Region 2 DVD | ||||
| Series 1 | 11 August 2003[9] | 11 August 2003[10] | 24 September 2007[11] | 2 | 15 | |
| Series 2 | 29 September 2003[12] | 29 September 2003[13] | 24 September 2007[14] | 3 | 15 | |
| Series 3 | 1 November 2004[15] | 24 September 2007[16] | 4 | 15 | ||
| Series 4 | 3 October 2005[17] | 3 | 15 | |||
| Collection sets | ||||||
| Series 1–2 | 29 September 2003 | 4 | 15 | |||
| Series 1–3 | 1 November 2004[18] | 9 | 15 | |||
| Series 1–4 | 6 November 2006[19] | 2 September 2013[20] | 12 | 15 | ||