Middle English
From Broadcast for Schools.co.uk.co.uk
companyThames & independent companies
started22nd Sep
1981
ended17th Oct
2001
last rpt19th Mar
2004
23 school years
episodes193
duration15 mins, 20 mins, 30 mins, 80 mins, 85 mins & 90 mins
languageenIn English
Middle English is an ITV and later Channel 4 schools TV series from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, covering Language, Literature, Drama, Poetry, Books and Media for primary and secondary school pupils.
- parent series for all of Thames TV's (and later Channel 4 Schools') English programmes for the middle years of school, including documentaries on writers, the media and language skills, poetry programmes and regular, serialised dramas
- replaced Writers' Workshop and About Books, and included repeats from both series in its first year
- despite the series title, Middle English was on air for over a decade before it offered a programme on Chaucer and mentioned the Middle English language in spring 1992
Dramas
- Shadow Cage by Philippa Pearce (2 episodes, autumn 1981)
- Izzy by Jan Mark (3 episodes, spring 1983
- The Shrinking of Treehorn by Florence Parry Heide, an animated version (1 episode, summer 1983)
- A Game of Soldiers by Jan Needle (3 episodes, autumn 1983)
- The Night Swimmers by Betsy Byars, an American production (3 episodes, spring 1984)
- Kurt, Mungo, B.P. and Me (spring 1984), Fast Forward (autumn 1986) and Mistaken Identity (autumn 1990), 3 separate plays about the experiences of a poet, written by and featuring Roger McGough
- Mime, three scenes told in mime by the Moving Picture Mime Show (1 episode, spring 1984)
- The Sea Green Man by Peter Carter (4 episodes, autumn 1984)
- You Don't Have to Use Words, extracts from a dance performance by children re-telling The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper (1 episode, summer 1985)
- Interference by Jan Mark (3 episodes, autumn 1985)
- The Chinese Word for Horse by John Lewis, an animated version (1 episode, summer 1986)
- Mr Magus is Waiting for You by Gene Kemp (3 episodes, autumn 1986)
- African Jigsaw, a musical by Peter Rose & Anne Conlon (1 episode, autumn 1987)
- The Finding by Nina Bawden (4 episodes, spring 1988)
- Rose, based on Trouble Half-Way by Jan Mark, originally shown for adults in October 1986 (4 episodes, summer 1988)
- True Romance by Frank Cottrell Boyce (2 episodes, spring 1989)
- The Enchanted Toad by Judy Corbalis (1 episode, spring 1989)
- The Thief by Jan Needle (4 episodes, summer 1989)
- The Strangers, based on Island of the Strangers by Catherine Sefton (4 episodes, spring 1990)
- The Secret by Ruth Thomas (3 episodes, spring 1991)
- The Longest Road, a role-playing production by the Greenwich Young People's Theatre (2 episodes, spring 1991)
- Down and Out by Bernard Ashley (1 episode, autumn 1991)
- The Fireboy (2 episodes, spring 1993)
- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (5 episodes, spring 1994, and an extended 85-minute version)
- The Egg Man by Janni Howker (2 episodes, spring 1995)
- The Room, a short film by Jeff Balsmeyer (autumn 1995)
- The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (5 episodes, spring 1996, and an extended 80-minute version)
- Macbeth by William Shakespeare (5 episodes, spring 1998, and an extended 86-minute version)
- Under the Hawthorn Tree by Maria Conlon-McKenna (4 episodes, spring 1999)
- Attila the Hen by Paddy Mounter, an animated version (2 episodes, autumn 2000)
- Cinderella, a modern re-telling (3 half-hour episodes, autumn 2000)
- there was also dramatised content in other episodes, for example the Crime Story episode from autumn 1983, a documentary about Nina Bawden, included dramatised extracts from the author's novel The Robbers, the Short Stories: Storehouse II episode from autumn 1988 covered the winning entries in a children's short story competition held the previous year, with enacted or animated productions of the stories, and the Knowledge About Language episode on Chaucer in spring 1992 included a children's enactment of The Pardoner's Tale
Related programmes
- The English ProgrammeA similar series for older pupils, also from Thames TV
- Talk, Write... and ReadA similar series for younger pupils, from Central TV
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