Hearts and Minds (1995 TV series)

Hearts and Minds is a British television series created by Jimmy McGovern and first aired on Channel 4 from 16 February to 9 March 1995. The series won the Royal Television Society award for Best Serial Drama.[1]

Hearts and Minds
GenreDrama
Created byJimmy McGovern
Written byJimmy McGovern
Directed byStephen Whittaker
Starring
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes4
Production
Producers
  • Tara Prem
  • Ian Scaife
CinematographyGraham Frake
EditorMax Lemon
Running time63 minutes
Production companiesAlomo Productions
WitzEnd Productions
Original release
NetworkChannel 4
Release16 February (1995-02-16) –
9 March 1995 (1995-03-09)

The series is about a young teacher at a tough Liverpool high school. After working in a factory, Drew Mackenzie (Christopher Eccleston) manages to educate himself to become a teacher. He wants to share his idealistic approach to rising above his circumstances with his Liverpool students, but soon finds himself caught in the crossfire of racial tensions, homophobia, and the difficult home lives of the teenagers.[2]

According to series creator Jimmy McGovern, the series was based in part on the three years he spent as an English teacher at the Quarry Bank school in Liverpool.[3] The series was well reviewed by British critics, who praised its realism as compared to other well known school dramas.[4]

Cast

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References

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  1. ^ RTS Awards Archive (February 2011), p. 19 (accessed 2014-02-20).
  2. ^ Tom Sutcliffe & Roger Perks, "The Prime of Mr McKenzie", The Independent, 9 February 1995.
  3. ^ Daniel Rosenthal, "Arts: And Those Who Can, Write Plays", The Independent, 23 November 1997.
  4. ^ Susan Ellsmore, Carry On, Teachers!: Representations of the Teaching Profession in Screen Culture (Trentham Books, 2005), ISBN 978-1858563596, pp. 21ff. Excerpts available at Google Books.
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