Kes star goes back to where his career took flight

young tearaway Billy Casper has returned to the school he famously terrorised in the iconic film Kes.

Actor Dai Bradley – who played the youngster in the 1969 acclaimed production – met with pupils at the site of the former Edward Sheerien School in Barnsley yesterday.

Parts of the now iconic award-winning film were shot at the site, which included the classic scene when Billy is fooling around on the crossbar of the goal to the anger of gym teacher Mr Sugden, played by Brian Glover, who was taking part in a football game and fantasising about himself as Bobby Charlton while commentating on the match in his head.

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The school has now closed along with neighbouring Royston High School, with both being replaced by Carlton Community College.

Yesterday Mr Bradley joined pupils past and present as one of a number of special guests to celebrate their achievements.

The event also marked Carlton Community College’s work with Arvon, a charity promoting writing.

Pupils from Athersley, Barnsley, have attended a series of week-long residential visits living and worked with professional writers in the house linked to the famous poet and children’s writer Ted Hughes in Heptonstall, West Yorkshire.

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Yesterday some read their work and played video of the residential trips before later questioning Mr Bradley, who was just a 15-year-old Barnsley schoolboy when he was plucked from obscurity to take the film’s starring role.

Arvon development manager Emma Johnson said: “The event is an opportunity for the school and all of the young people that have benefited so far, to come together and celebrate their achievements.

“We are immensely proud of the hard work put in by everyone at Carlton Community College and delighted that they have achieved so much during the project.

“We are grateful to all of our partners who have made the project possible and look forward to 2011’s course and to once again giving young people a chance to improve their literacy skills through their love of football.”

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The project run by Arvon is called Writing the Game: from the Pitch to the Page and it aims to improve young people’s writing ability and confidence through a football themed writing course. It is funded jointly by The Paul Hamlyn Foundation and The Football Foundation and currently two courses are run every year, one in Barnsley and one in Plymouth.

Pupils from Carlton Community College visited the creative writing centre in Hebden Bridge to write about football and take part in football-related activities for a week, including a tour of Barnsley FC, a training session and an opportunity to meet the players.

They are taught during the week by journalist Anthony Clavane, who writes for the Mirror, and Nick Stimson, a playwright. Ian McMillan, the Barnsley Bard, also helps them to write a football musical in an afternoon

The result of their work – a newspaper of their writing – was also launched at the event yesterday.

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Kes, made in 1969, is still considered one of the most important British films of all time.

Directed by Ken Loach, the low-budget movie cost just £160,000 yet is ranked seventh in the British Film Institute’s Top Ten British Films and in the top ten of its list of 50 films to see by the age of 14.

The film focuses on Billy, who has little hope in life and is bullied both at home, by his physically and verbally abusive half-brother, Jud, as well as at school. His unruly life is transformed, however, when Billy starts training a kestrel, Kes, that he takes from a nest on a farm. For the first time, he finds direction and some happiness but after an argument, Jud takes revenge and kills the bird. Kes is then buried in the garden where he was first found, as the scene fades to black.

The film is based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave written by the Barnsley-born author Barry Hines and both the film and the book paint a gritty portrait of life in the mining areas of Yorkshire at the time.

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The extras were all local people from in or around Barnsley.

The film won a number of major awards, including the 1971 Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Screenplay, and the best supporting actor and best newcomer categories at the 1971 British Academy Film Awards.

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