Review: Teechers, Wakefield Theatre Royal

It’s also about the challenges of youth and the limited possibilities if your education, and your teachers, are uninspiring.

Teechers is John Godber’s response to what he saw around him when he was a teacher, before he left to write for Grange Hill. Viewed through the prism of his intense politics, he saw a system – and some individual teachers – failing its young charges.

As the son of a miner who discovered opportunity despite his circumstances, it has always been a bugbear.

Nobody, however, wants to see a lecture and Teechers draws on some of those hilarious moments that those in charge of educating our young must witness on a daily basis – well, we all saw Educating Yorkshire.

This production was first seen almost a decade ago when director Hannah Chissick took over Harrogate Theatre and became the youngest artistic director in history. She staged then a piece of work that was absolutely alive with a youthful energy. A decade on, that energy remains – thanks to an intensely likeable performance from the three young cast members – but, as director, Chissick brings a more mature approach to the piece, drawing out the politics a little more. It remains at times something of a riot, and anyone who went to school in the 1980s will have a seriously enjoyable trip down musical memory lane, but there is substance beneath the energetic surface.

To Sept 14, then touring.