Our Day Out: Improving Standards in English through Drama at Key Stage 3 and GCSE (Critical Scripts)

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Whilst he is educating the children, Mrs Kay sits on a bench overlooking the estuary. This shows the differences in their attitudes and teaching methods.

He is absolutely right because if Mrs Kay had listened to his advice, the children would have not stole from the café. Mrs Kay in this scene is wrong by being way too supportive of the children. She knows that they didn’t even have enough money to go on the trip, let alone by sweets. By allowing them to steal she is not preparing them for good socialization in the future. Well… if the antics in her department are anything to go by… She always reminds me of a mother hen rather than a teacher…’ In 2010 Our Day Out – The Musical was re-mounted at the Royal Court with the following cast changes: This comment suggests that he thinks that her behaviour is stupid and she is a bad influence to the children.He starts to speak to her personally and calls her by her first name. Here Russell wants the audience to start to take a liking to Briggs. The start of a personal relationship with the students is conveyed. Russell uses Carol’s realistic attitude to make us feel empathy for her and the other children. They know themselves what they are like and how people treat them but they cant and don’t do anything about it because they are so used to it. When the children were leaving the city, on the coach a little kid threatens to tell Mrs Kay that Reilly and Digga are smoking.

Mr Briggs has a terrible attitude problem, which is not appropriate for any teacher to have. His behaviour here, suggests that he doesn’t understand children. The whole purpose of teaching is to educate children in a positive and friendly environment, but he educates them in a negative environment, showing that he has more authority. He compares the children to rubbish. They react afraid when they are being threatened that Mr Briggs will find out. This shows that they take Mrs Kay for granted by not respecting her. They behave as if she’s there sister or friend, because they know that she is soft hearted. Russell skilfully uses the bear’s conversation to convey to the audience Briggs attitude. Russell wants us to empathise with the children and understand how they are stereotyped and not cared for. The children think it’s cruel that the bear is kept in the pit. However Briggs says “it was born in captivity so it won’t know any other sort of life.” His feelings towards the bear reflect his attitude towards the children. He thinks it doesn’t know any differently. Similarly to the kids and their limited lifestyles. He stereotypes them but they are used to this so it has no effect. In Andrew’s conversation with Mr Briggs, we see that he goes through an awful amount of deprivation at home.

 Our Day Out Coursework                                          Victoria  Olubi

This also proves that despite that she is soft and kind hearted, she can still control the children’s behaviour.

At Scene 16, Mr Briggs is more sensible by saying that somebody should keep an eye on the children. Our Day Out" is the 16th episode of eighth season of the British BBC anthology TV series Play for Today. The episode was a television play that was originally broadcast on 28 December 1977. "Our Day Out" was written by Willy Russell, directed by Pedr James, produced by David Rose, and starred Jean Heywood, Alun Armstrong, Elizabeth Estensen, Robert Gillespie, Iona Banks, and Peter Tilbury. Due to popular demand, it was shown again in February 1978 as part of the BBC's Play for Today series and was also re-broadcast in 1979 and again in August 1990 and on BBC Four in 2008. [1]I only ever did it once, take a Liverpool coach load, they’d rob your eyes if you weren’t looking.’ (Scene 12) Her views on the children are realistic because she knows that all she is capable of doing is helping the children get over their social problems by allowing them to have fun. She has tried her best. She believes that they have been let down by all the adults around them, she doesn’t want to let them down as well. Here Russell makes the audience suspect something about Briggs, as we are unsure of what he’s going to do with the film. Maybe briggs character is too set in his ways to change. Here Russell wants the audience to like Briggs, because he is portrayed as thoughtful and he wants to help the kids out and get involved in their education. Russell wants us to think he is changing as previously he underestimated their abilities and stereotyped them. Willy Russell was born in Whiston, on the outskirts of Liverpool, where he grew up. His parents worked in a book publisher's and often encouraged him to read. After leaving school with one O-level in English, he first became a ladies' hairdresser and ran his own salon. Russell then undertook a variety of jobs, also the first play he wrote was Keep Your Eyes Down Low (1975). His first success was a play about The Beatles called John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Bert. Originally commissioned for the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool was transferring to the West End in 1974. Educating Rita (1980) concerned a female hairdresser and her Open University teacher. The semi-autobiographical Educating Rita was turned into a 1983 film with Michael Caine and Julie Walters. The musical Blood Brothers (1983), for which Russell also composed the music, first opened in Liverpool and transferred to London's Phoenix Theatre. It won the best actress award at the Lawrence Olivier awards. Bill Kenwright produced a revival in 1988 which has run for more than twenty years; the show was produced on Broadway in 1993. Shirley Valentine, which first opened in Liverpool in 1986 before a new production opened in London in 1988 starring Pauline Collins. It was also made into a successful film, in 1989, again with Collins in the title role. Russell received BAFTA and Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for both Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine.

Here Russell makes the audience dislike Briggs because he is a threat to the children and doesn’t give them freedom. However Russell skilfully makes us feel empathy for him as well. Genuinely Mr Briggs is concerned for the pupils but he doesn't want anybody to know this and doesn't show it in fear of losing respect from both the pupils and the Headmaster. Really he just wants to educate them but he doesn’t understand them and their situations. This makes us empathise with the children because like Mrs Kay we begin to be realistic and know that they aren’t going to get an education and that they will have ‘limited opportunities’ for most of their life.These children get little freedom at home, so they deserve to have some freedom at school. Mr Briggs is narrow minded and only thinks of himself. Here we see that he judges all of the children. He talks to them as if they are not considered real human beings and should be referred to as animals. He is also hypocritical because he tells the keeper off for being rude, but later on he goes and does the same thing again to upset the children. This again shows that the children have a bad reputation because of the area in which they live in.