A BBC comedy drama set in the world of a 'pile 'em high university'. Karen Poynter is the new head of the Geography Department - renamed Geographical Tourism - at Hayborough University, which is definitely not part of the elite Russell Group of top universities. Ranked 132nd in the UK academic league table; if you have a pulse, you can have a degree.
This is the high energy farce of the breeze block and grotty cafeteria, with all the endless meetings, the backstabbings and the sheer panic of a university setting. In an era of increasing fees and cutbacks, this satire has become all the more acute.
Starring Sophie Thomson (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 1, Coronation Street) as Karen, with Jonathan Keeble (War and Peace) as the venal Dean.
Episode list:
Pilot show
Partners
Inspection
The Price of Partnership
Restructure
Rebrand, Relaunch
Clearing
Privatisation, the Final Battle
Year of the Rat
Creative Solutions
The Department of Geography at the new University of Hayborough is under pressure to find new sources of funding and to broaden its horizons. So when a new Dean of Research Development, Cherry Swat, comes on board she urges partnerships abroad. An international research centre for Pier and Wharf ethics is mooted in the African Republic of Epithea. Everything seems to be going smoothly for the university until they realise the student they have recently expelled just happens to be the President of Epithea's son... Written by Joyce Bryant and starring Sophie Thompson, Jonathan Keeble, Jeremy Swift, Caroline Burns Cooke, Cyril Nri, and Marlon G. Day. Produced by Gary Brown.
