The Higher Mortals
Encyclopedia
The Higher Mortals is a film produced by the Children's Film Unit in 1993, directed by Colin Finbow and distributed by Channel Four Films (1993 is the correct date although a number of erroneous dates, ranging from 1985 to 1998, are given elsewhere on the internet). It was filmed in south Suffolk
and north Essex
, and received its sole TV transmission on Channel 4
on September 25, 1994, also being shown at the 1994 Edinburgh Film Festival. It deals with the problems suffered by many smaller girls' boarding schools during the early 1990s recession, and makes use of metaphor and analogy in its critique of the John Major
government of the day. It notably features early appearances by the now prominent actresses Jemima Rooper
and Clemency Burton-Hill
.
") which (like a considerable number of real schools of that ilk at the time, many of which closed) is suffering serious financial problems following the recession. The headmistress, Miss Thorogood (played by Susannah York
) announces that some girls "and some boys" from deprived inner city
areas will be coming to the school, as part of a plan by the government to help struggling private schools while simultaneously giving it justification for its cutbacks of social services in deprived areas. "The Higher Mortals", while also alluding to the general assumed social position of those already at the school, specifically refers to a secret society founded by some of the girls, based around social elitism
and a particular veneration of literature
.
The inner-city children - four boys, Jason, Wayne, Clint and Ryan, and one girl, Hayley (whose mother had committed suicide
) arrive at the school and are, for the most part, viewed with hostility and a general lack of understanding. It is implied that the boys are at the school due to an error in social services, with Miss Thorogood commenting that she is not even sure they have the same inner-city children they were intended to have. There is some hostility towards one of the boys, Ryan, on the grounds that he is black
, with one teacher (the reactionary Mr Bowles, played by Richard Kane) describing him as a "black bastard". There is an incident of joyriding
, and it is revealed that at least one of the boys cannot read. A mood of uncertainty seems to run through the school as the summer term goes on, and it is made clear that the school's financial situation is more serious than it is willing to make public.
One of the inner-city children, Clint (played by Glen Mead) seems to blend in to the school environment (he is seen reading right-wing newspapers such as The Sun
, The Times
and the Daily Mail
) and is little heard from in the film's later stages. However, the other inner-city children develop a plot to burn the school down, which they trick some of the girls into participating in. On the day that education secretary Mrs Fry (who somewhat resembles the then government minister Virginia Bottomley
) arrives to speak at the school's Speech Day, she is kidnapped by the inner-city children and tells them, incorrectly, that she will announce that the scheme of sending inner-city children to Crabbe College was a pointless waste of time and that the school was outmoded anyway.
At Speech Day, Mrs Fry actually says that it had been a great success, had secured the school's future and had justified the government's cutbacks in public funding. At this point, the plot to burn the school down (using petrol among other things) is put into action. In a powerful sequence, the headmistress is seen talking about "this still undeniably great country" as part of the school is already in flames.
Jason and Wayne are both killed in their getaway car after one of them lights a cigarette while his hands are still covered in petrol. The film ends with Vicky saying that Crabbe College had been so badly damaged that it was closed down, with its pupils going to other schools. She herself had transferred to the comprehensive school
that Hayley had come from, and she concludes by commenting that "I learnt that prize day that there could be no poetry for Jason and Wayne, and that ideals such as ours in the Higher Mortals had almost been abandoned. My education had begun".
Jemima Rooper
- Vicky Sefton
Clemency Burton-Hill
- Melissa
Lucy Balmer - Isabel
Kate Fowler - Rebecca Ritchie
Georgina Glyn - Georgie
Katie Waldergrave - Peach Parrish
Lucinda Nicholson - Laurel
Charlotte Payne - Charlie
staff of Crabbe College:
Susannah York
- Miss Thorogood, headmistress. This character has a very English determination to "soldier on" in all circumstances, even when (as at the end of the film) they become impossible. At one point, she can be seen with a concerned expression after a girl, when asked what Oscar Wilde
was trying to say when he wrote "the vilest deeds, like poison weeds, bloom well in prison air, it is only what is good in Man that wastes and withers there", responds that he had been trying to say "why people should be in prison".
John Altman - Mr Thomas, head of science. This character was himself state-educated, and is the only member of staff who truly understands and sympathises with the inner-city children. He is also seen with a wearily sarcastic expression after Mrs Fry has announced in her speech that "the recession is over - we will never see another in our lifetimes".
Richard Kane - Mr Bowles, a strongly right-wing teacher who is seen making a racist
remark, and also locks the inner-city children in their dormitory
.
Paula Wilcox
- Miss Bird
Gilly Coman
- Miss Pluckley
Sara Markland - Miss Hope
Patsy Byrne
- Matron
inner-city children:
Zoey Brand - Hayley
Peter Morton - Jason
Fergus Brazier - Wayne
Kaleb Gumbs - Ryan
Glen Mead - Clint
other characters:
Gordon Griffin - Mr Sefton (Vicky's father)
Victoria Finney
- Mrs Sefton (Vicky's mother)
Gillian Hawser - Mrs Fry (the education minister)
Malcolm Jamieson - Rawlings (Mrs Fry's chauffeur)
Alison Rooper (Jemima Rooper's mother) - TV interviewer
Tat Whalley - Jake, social worker
Paul Rae - Policeman
original music: David Hewson (some familiar classical pieces are also used, and the closing credits are set to a rewritten version of I Vow to Thee, My Country
, heavily ironic in the circumstances)
cinematography: Sam McCourt
art direction: Carol Rennie, Maria Trevis
continuity: Ledie Toscano
costume design: Len Kerswill
production manager: Marc Baker
assistant director: David Weeks
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
and north Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, and received its sole TV transmission on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
on September 25, 1994, also being shown at the 1994 Edinburgh Film Festival. It deals with the problems suffered by many smaller girls' boarding schools during the early 1990s recession, and makes use of metaphor and analogy in its critique of the John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
government of the day. It notably features early appearances by the now prominent actresses Jemima Rooper
Jemima Rooper
Jemima Rooper is an English actress.- Background :Born in Hammersmith, London, Rooper is the daughter of TV journalist Alison Rooper. She attended Redcliffe Primary School in Chelsea, London and Godolphin and Latymer girls' school. While working on The Famous Five, she passed eight GCSEs with A*...
and Clemency Burton-Hill
Clemency Burton-Hill
Clemency Margaret Greatrex Burton is a British actress, novelist, journalist and violinist.-Private life:The daughter of the TV presenter and writer Humphrey Burton and Gillian Hawser, an agent , she attended St Paul's Girls' School and Westminster School and went on to read English at Magdalene...
.
Plot synopsis
Crabbe College is a lesser-known girls' boarding school (described at one point as "a little family school founded in the 1950s by a woman who was potty about poetryPoetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
") which (like a considerable number of real schools of that ilk at the time, many of which closed) is suffering serious financial problems following the recession. The headmistress, Miss Thorogood (played by Susannah York
Susannah York
Susannah York was a British film, stage and television actress. She was awarded a BAFTA as Best Supporting Actress for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for the same film. She won best actress for Images at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival...
) announces that some girls "and some boys" from deprived inner city
Inner city
The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas...
areas will be coming to the school, as part of a plan by the government to help struggling private schools while simultaneously giving it justification for its cutbacks of social services in deprived areas. "The Higher Mortals", while also alluding to the general assumed social position of those already at the school, specifically refers to a secret society founded by some of the girls, based around social elitism
Elitism
Elitism is the belief or attitude that some individuals, who form an elite — a select group of people with intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most...
and a particular veneration of literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
.
The inner-city children - four boys, Jason, Wayne, Clint and Ryan, and one girl, Hayley (whose mother had committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
) arrive at the school and are, for the most part, viewed with hostility and a general lack of understanding. It is implied that the boys are at the school due to an error in social services, with Miss Thorogood commenting that she is not even sure they have the same inner-city children they were intended to have. There is some hostility towards one of the boys, Ryan, on the grounds that he is black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
, with one teacher (the reactionary Mr Bowles, played by Richard Kane) describing him as a "black bastard". There is an incident of joyriding
Joyride (crime)
To joyride is to drive around in a stolen car, boat, or other vehicle with no particular goal, a ride taken solely for pleasure.In English law, joyriding is not considered to be theft, because the intention to "permanently deprive" the owner of the vehicle cannot be proven...
, and it is revealed that at least one of the boys cannot read. A mood of uncertainty seems to run through the school as the summer term goes on, and it is made clear that the school's financial situation is more serious than it is willing to make public.
One of the inner-city children, Clint (played by Glen Mead) seems to blend in to the school environment (he is seen reading right-wing newspapers such as The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
and the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
) and is little heard from in the film's later stages. However, the other inner-city children develop a plot to burn the school down, which they trick some of the girls into participating in. On the day that education secretary Mrs Fry (who somewhat resembles the then government minister Virginia Bottomley
Virginia Bottomley
Virginia Bottomley, Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone, PC, DL is a British Conservative Party politician. She was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 1984 to 2005. She was raised to the peerage in 2005...
) arrives to speak at the school's Speech Day, she is kidnapped by the inner-city children and tells them, incorrectly, that she will announce that the scheme of sending inner-city children to Crabbe College was a pointless waste of time and that the school was outmoded anyway.
At Speech Day, Mrs Fry actually says that it had been a great success, had secured the school's future and had justified the government's cutbacks in public funding. At this point, the plot to burn the school down (using petrol among other things) is put into action. In a powerful sequence, the headmistress is seen talking about "this still undeniably great country" as part of the school is already in flames.
Jason and Wayne are both killed in their getaway car after one of them lights a cigarette while his hands are still covered in petrol. The film ends with Vicky saying that Crabbe College had been so badly damaged that it was closed down, with its pupils going to other schools. She herself had transferred to the comprehensive school
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...
that Hayley had come from, and she concludes by commenting that "I learnt that prize day that there could be no poetry for Jason and Wayne, and that ideals such as ours in the Higher Mortals had almost been abandoned. My education had begun".
Cast
girls of Crabbe College:Jemima Rooper
Jemima Rooper
Jemima Rooper is an English actress.- Background :Born in Hammersmith, London, Rooper is the daughter of TV journalist Alison Rooper. She attended Redcliffe Primary School in Chelsea, London and Godolphin and Latymer girls' school. While working on The Famous Five, she passed eight GCSEs with A*...
- Vicky Sefton
Clemency Burton-Hill
Clemency Burton-Hill
Clemency Margaret Greatrex Burton is a British actress, novelist, journalist and violinist.-Private life:The daughter of the TV presenter and writer Humphrey Burton and Gillian Hawser, an agent , she attended St Paul's Girls' School and Westminster School and went on to read English at Magdalene...
- Melissa
Lucy Balmer - Isabel
Kate Fowler - Rebecca Ritchie
Georgina Glyn - Georgie
Katie Waldergrave - Peach Parrish
Lucinda Nicholson - Laurel
Charlotte Payne - Charlie
staff of Crabbe College:
Susannah York
Susannah York
Susannah York was a British film, stage and television actress. She was awarded a BAFTA as Best Supporting Actress for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for the same film. She won best actress for Images at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival...
- Miss Thorogood, headmistress. This character has a very English determination to "soldier on" in all circumstances, even when (as at the end of the film) they become impossible. At one point, she can be seen with a concerned expression after a girl, when asked what Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
was trying to say when he wrote "the vilest deeds, like poison weeds, bloom well in prison air, it is only what is good in Man that wastes and withers there", responds that he had been trying to say "why people should be in prison".
John Altman - Mr Thomas, head of science. This character was himself state-educated, and is the only member of staff who truly understands and sympathises with the inner-city children. He is also seen with a wearily sarcastic expression after Mrs Fry has announced in her speech that "the recession is over - we will never see another in our lifetimes".
Richard Kane - Mr Bowles, a strongly right-wing teacher who is seen making a racist
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
remark, and also locks the inner-city children in their dormitory
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
.
Paula Wilcox
Paula Wilcox
Paula Wilcox is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Chrissy in the British comedy Man About the House .-Early sitcom fame:...
- Miss Bird
Gilly Coman
Gilly Coman
Gilly Coman was a British based actress, who played Aveline in the first four series of Carla Lane's sitcom Bread....
- Miss Pluckley
Sara Markland - Miss Hope
Patsy Byrne
Patsy Byrne
Patsy Byrne is an English actress.-Biography:She was educated at Ashford School for Girls, and attended the school around the same time as Lorna Fendall, and Joanna Brough, daughter of Arthur Brough...
- Matron
inner-city children:
Zoey Brand - Hayley
Peter Morton - Jason
Fergus Brazier - Wayne
Kaleb Gumbs - Ryan
Glen Mead - Clint
other characters:
Gordon Griffin - Mr Sefton (Vicky's father)
Victoria Finney
Victoria Finney
Victoria Finney is a British actress who is better known as Louise Richards in Families from 1990 to 1993. She also performed in The Grand, Children's Ward, The Bill and Holby City. She is married to theatre producer Julian Crouch....
- Mrs Sefton (Vicky's mother)
Gillian Hawser - Mrs Fry (the education minister)
Malcolm Jamieson - Rawlings (Mrs Fry's chauffeur)
Alison Rooper (Jemima Rooper's mother) - TV interviewer
Tat Whalley - Jake, social worker
Paul Rae - Policeman
Other credits
producer: Brianne Perkinsoriginal music: David Hewson (some familiar classical pieces are also used, and the closing credits are set to a rewritten version of I Vow to Thee, My Country
I Vow to Thee, My Country
I Vow to Thee, My Country is a British patriotic song created in 1921 when a poem by Sir Cecil Spring-Rice was set to music by Gustav Holst.-History:...
, heavily ironic in the circumstances)
cinematography: Sam McCourt
art direction: Carol Rennie, Maria Trevis
continuity: Ledie Toscano
costume design: Len Kerswill
production manager: Marc Baker
assistant director: David Weeks