Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School (TV series)

Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School was a BBC Television show broadcast from 1952 to 1961. It was based on the Greyfriars School stories by author Charles Hamilton (writing as Frank Richards). Hamilton also wrote all the scripts for the television show.

Bunter was portrayed by actor Gerald Campion, who was 29 when he was cast in the role. A number of other young actors were featured in schoolboy roles who would go on to achieve fame in their careers, including Anthony Valentine, Michael Crawford, Jeremy Bulloch, Melvyn Hayes and Kenneth Cope.

Development

The character Billy Bunter was featured in the Greyfriars School stories, written by author Charles Hamilton (writing as Frank Richards) and published from 1908 to 1940 in the boys' comic The Magnet. Plans to bring the stories to the cinema screen, featuring the actor Will Hay, had been discussed in the 1930s, but were unrealised.^[1] In January 1947, the Daily Mail reported that the film companies Rank Organisation and Rock Productions were interested in resurrecting the project, with the latter paying a £150 fee to Charles Hamilton. Again, the project was dropped.^[2]

In May 1951, the BBC made public its plans to screen a series of television shows with Billy Bunter as the principal character. These would be broadcast during the BBC Children's Hour.^[3] Later that year, in December 1951, the BBC announced that it was looking for an actor to portray the character of Billy Bunter, prompting seventy-five hopefuls to apply for the part. The search for a suitable Bunter received wide newspaper coverage, with the Daily Mirror covering the auditions both on its front page and in columnist Ian Mackey's 'diary'. The Daily Telegraph and Reynolds News were among other newspapers that also provided prominent coverage. When a 29-year-old actor, Gerald Campion, who was married with two children, was cast in the role of Bunter, the choice was greeted with mixed reactions.^[4] Campion was a relatively lightweight 11 stone 2 pounds, compared with Bunter's weight of 14 stone 12 1/2 lb (as published in The Magnet in 1939)^[5] and this added to the controversy.

Character actor Kynaston Reeves was cast as schoolmaster Mr Quelch, and various unknown young actors were cast in the roles of the various schoolboys. As the show continued into successive series over a period of years, these roles would be recast regularly. A number of the young actors would later carve out successful acting careers as adults, including Anthony Valentine (cast as Lord Mauleverer and later as form captain Harry Wharton), Michael Crawford (as Frank Nugent), Jeremy Bulloch (as Bob Cherry), Melvyn Hayes (as the cad Harold Skinner) and Kenneth Cope (as school bully Gerald Loder).

The show's first producer was Joy Harrington, who had also produced an adaptation of Richmal Crompton's Just William, along with Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island and several other children's shows.^[6] Later episodes would be produced by Shaun Sutton, who would go on to become a long serving head of drama at BBC Television and be regarded as one of the most influential figures in British television.^[7]

Artist Tony Hart, who would later become well known as the presenter of TV shows Vision On, Playbox and Take Hart, provided the artwork for the opening credits.^[8] The theme music was the "Portsmouth" section of Ralph Vaughan Williams's Sea Songs.

The early shows were broadcast as live performances in two timeslots: at 5:40 pm and repeated at 8:00 pm.

Reception

Reaction to the first episode of the show was mixed. Jonah Barrington, radio critic of the Sunday Chronicle provided the doubled-edged observation that Bunter was the greatest TV character since Muffin the Mule. Newspaper reviewers generally agreed that the casting of Gerald Campion as Bunter and character actor Kynaston Reeves as Mr Quelch were successful - although some dissenters felt that Reeves' interpretation was closer to Upper Fourth master Mr Hacker than Mr Quelch.

The portrayal of the senior boys was generally viewed as adequate, but most reviewers agreed that the portrayal of the junior schoolboys was much less successful. The characters of Hurree Singh and Bob Cherry were seen as particularly poorly realised, with both woodenly parroting their familiar catch-phrases without the slightest expression.

The low budget of the production also attracted adverse comment, with reviewers noting the "certain emptiness of the sets" and the fact that the school seemed deserted apart from the principal characters.^[9]

Archive

The episodes of the first series were broadcast as live performances and no telerecordings were made.

The majority of the remaining episodes have been lost to the BBC's policy of wiping archived recordings in the 1960s and 1970s. A total of nine episodes still exist in the BBC's archive. The survivors are the complete third series (six episodes), and some isolated episodes from a later date. Note that some stories were later remade which may cause confusion.^[10] Some audio-only recordings also exist.^[11]

Principal characters and cast

Episodes

Series 1 (1952)

1953 & 1954 Specials

Series 2 (1955)

Series 3 (1956)

1957 Special

Series 4 (1957)

Series 5 (1959)

Series 6 (1960)

Series 7 (1961)

References

Bibliography

• Hamilton-Wright, Una. (2006), The Far Side of Billy Bunter - The Biography of Charles Hamilton, Wokingham: The Friars Library .
• Lofts, W.O.G.; Adley, D.J. (1975), The World of Frank Richards, London: Howard Baker .