A Very English Education

New boys are called ‘stigs’. A latecomer to class is branded a ‘vile boy’. And ‘everybody wanks here and nobody has any qualms about talking about it’. The footage from a 1979 BBC series about hyper-expensive boarding school Radley College is truly the stuff of ‘Ripping Yarns’-esque parody.

But the meat of ‘A Very English Education’ lies in the present day, as director Hannah Berryman meets some of the boys who featured in the original series to find out about the men they’ve become. Perhaps surprisingly, most are well disposed towards the school, their personalities having clearly formed either in line with Radley’s goal to teach ‘the right habits for life’ or in spite of it. Only Donald – there on a scholarship and nearly cracking under the pressures of parental expectation and his prodigious talents – seems to have incurred damage that was more than skin deep.

The ‘7 Up’-style set-up and mournful soundtrack lend the documentary a poignancy which doesn’t always feel entirely earned, and ‘A Very English Education’ is never quite as profound as it threatens to be. But it’s skilfully made and fascinating both as a time capsule and a series of character studies, nonetheless.