The History Boys (2006)


Richard Griffiths       Hector
Clive Merrison          The Headmaster
Frances De La Tour      Dorothy Lintott
Stephen Campbell         Moore  Irwin
Dominic Cooper          Dakin
Sacha Dhawan            Akthar
Andrew Knott            Lockwood
Samuel Barnett          Posner
Russell Tovey           Rudge
Jamie Parker            Scripps
James Corden            Timms
Penelope Wilton         Mrs. Bibby
Adrian Scarborough      Mr. Wilkes
Georgia Taylor          Fiona
Samuel Anderson         Crowther

Directed by:            Nicholas Hytner, Nicholas Hytner, Nick Starr
Produced by:            Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich, Charles Moore


Centers on an unruly class of bright, funny teenage boys in pursuit of sex, sport and a college 
degree. Bounced between their maverick English teacher, a young and shrewd professor hired to up 
their test scores, a grossly out-numbered history teacher, and a headmaster obsessed with results, 
the boys attempt to sift through it all to pass the daunting university admissions process. Their 
journey becomes as much about how education works, as it is about where education leads. 

================

In 1980s Britain, a group of young men at Cutlers' Grammar School all have the brains, and the will 
to earn the chance of getting accepted in the finest universities in the nation, Oxford and Cambridge. 
Despite the fine teaching by excellent professionals like Mrs Lintott in history and the intellectually 
enthusiastic Hector in General Studies, the Headmaster is not satisfied. He signs on the young Irwin 
to polish the students' style to give them the best chance. In this mix of intellectualism and creative 
spirit that guides a rigorous preparation regime for that ultimate educational brass ring, the lives of 
the randy students and the ostensibly restrained faculty intertwine that would change their lives forever.

================

When a 1980s class achieves the best scores ever at Cutlers' Grammar School for boys in Sheffield 
(Yorkshire, northern England), the petty headmaster, who craves the prestige like the parents, recruits 
a young Oxford graduate, Irwin, to prepare them for the general entry exams for the world class universities 
of Oxford and Cambridge. He stresses that takes not just delivering what all schools prepare for, but -if 
they even really want to go- standing out by a different approach and perspective: surprising quotations 
and associations, the other side of the coin, witty phrasing... Actually good foundations were laid by the 
current staff, less by history teacher Dorothy Lintott, a frustrated liberal feminist without actual impact, 
then by the enthusiasm-arousing 'Hector' in General Studies, who gets their attention and makes them think 
trough literature, open discussion, role-play and performing declamation and song, at both of which the only 
Jewish (like the Muslim, fully integrated) boy, sensitive gentle gay David, excels. Alas, when the headmaster 
learns that the caring, paternal Hector once innocently touched a boy's privates, he insists on 'graceful' 
early retirement, a personal drama with surprising twists in the end. Meanwhile the irresistible class flirt, 
Dakin, skilfully tests all borders including his and Irwin's sexual orientation, and all consider what they 
really aspire and care for, in studies and life.