Please Sir! (TV Series) Our Mr. Price (1971) User Reviews

Life Without Price!

[ShadeGrenade · 2/10 · 17 May 2007]

Fed up with constant abuse from pupils, Mr.Price decides to jack in teaching and get a job with a pharmaceutical company. The interview is a disaster; Price disparages the firm's products, and his dishevelled appearance and Welsh accent do him no favours.

The kids are overjoyed at the thought of him leaving, while the other teachers cannot do enough to help him in his search for work.

Convinced he has blown it, he decides to stay, but then, an unexpected phone call from the drug company gives him renewed hope...

Oh dear. This has 'misfire' written all over it. Tony Bilbow's script rehashes 'Life Without Doris' from the previous series, only with Price threatening to leave rather than Miss Ewell. Unlike Joan Sanderson in that earlier episode, Richard Davies is denied the opportunity to play his character in a sympathetic key, when not drunk he's angry most of the time. Given a better script, he could have been brilliant.

The main source of humour here seems to be the sight of Smithy convulsed with laughter at the thought of Price going after a job he has no chance of getting. The studio audience is silent for about 99% of the episode, and I can understand why.

The Price Is Right?

[alanbnew · 8/10 · 29 August 2021]

Mr Price, brilliantly played by Richard Davies, is my favourite "Please Sir!" character so an episode centred around him was always likely to have plenty of appeal for me.

Mr Price has long had an abysmal relationship with the pupils of Fenn Street. The other staff are also well aware of his cynicism and disaffection with teaching so they jokingly speculate in his absence on alternative jobs for him. Most of these are obvious non-runners but one of them as a representative for a pharmaceutical company is much more suitable. Price later discovers this and decides to apply for that job. While his academic qualifications for the post are more than adequate would they be prepared to offer a job to someone with such a negative attitude? Or will he rise to a new challenge in which he is rather more valued?

This is a very entertaining episode, allowing once again for the virtual insignificance of the pupils so far in this fourth series. The focus is much more on the possible consequences of life outside Fenn Street for Mr Price - and for the school. Perhaps surprisingly given earlier events the other staff are genuinely worried about his possible departure. It has to be said that for Mr Cromwell and Miss Ewell this is much more about the practical difficulties of replacing a Science teacher rather than genuine valuation of his work. However there is a nice scene where Mr Smith shows genuine affection for his colleague and regret over his possible departure. This typifies Smithy who was always a very sincere and well-intentioned man. The newest member of staff Ffitchett-Brown appreciates Price's subversive character and sense of humour but also looks out for him. What is certain is that the pupils certainly wouldn't miss the teacher with whom they share a mutual contempt.

There are some interesting signs of different times. Despite his negativity cynicism and antagonistic relationships with pupils Mr Price's job security is never in doubt - he has a job there for as long as he wants. In today's tougher teaching environment he would be under notice to improve and his job most definitely at risk if he didn't do so. In fact scarcely any of the Fenn Street teachers would get a classroom job in the real world, nor indeed would almost any sitcom teacher but of course if they were all conventional and fully competent where would the humour be in that? He also gets an interview with the pharmaceutical company at short notice with no apparent difficulty, a sign of an age when employment seemed very plentiful and obtaining and changing jobs seemed far more straightforward than it is now.

The final outcome won't come as a huge surprise but in sitcom the entertainment comes from seeing how that outcome will be devised. Certainly a good episode but for the show's longer-term prospects it was going to soon need a revitalisation of its pupil characters so that the staff were not carrying the comic responsibility so much.