‘The alcohol and the cigarettes were all fake. We couldn’t drink that fast and manage all the different takes’
Channel 4 was developing a comedy-drama series set in a school. It had a pilot script but it needed a more original angle. It offered me free rein, which was irresistible. I put together a team of young writers and we developed the idea into something that felt unique. In all the other shows I’d seen set in schools, the teachers were saintly and really cared about the kids, apart perhaps from one crusty, disillusioned old-timer. But lots of my friends had drifted into teaching after university: for them it was a job rather than a vocation, which was far more interesting. Our teachers were more like them. They were only a couple of years older than the kids, hated their jobs and were completely self-centred.
