5. Teachers (2001-2004)
Andrew Lincoln's starring role post-This Life and another performance utterly different to his role on The Walking Dead. As with Jack Davenport in Coupling, Lincoln's character Simon is the perfect opportunity for him to showcase his comedy chops. And he does it well as the hapless teacher existing in a world he has no control over. It's another show that might have got good audiences at the time but isn't quite so remembered since. What is so great about Teachers is its ability to show that the profession is full of people as hopeless as the students they teach. Sure you see their passion for the subject from time to time but there are moment when you think thank god they aren't teaching my kids! Its kind of a behind the scenes with a difference. Colleagues that spend all their non-working time in the pub or obsessed with each other getting into ridiculous situations. In the first season Simon flits between his tumultuous relationship with cop Maggie, his obsession with fellow teacher Jenny and his attempts to teach such hard hitting issues as sex education with disastrous consequences. Supported by best friend, Susan he battles his way through his working days, supported by a whole host of great characters. Kurt and Brian are a brilliant double act, misunderstanding even the most basic of human interactions and headmistress Carol is brilliantly cold and ruthless (though we get a brilliant episode in a later series where she goes through every stage of the menopause in the space of one week in an explosion of emotions). Essentially the teachers are worse than the students - something that doesn't reflect actual teachers - we barely see the teachers marking papers outside school unless to damage or lose the work, but it works brilliantly. There's even a mix of the bizarre in several episodes (one episode has a donkey wandering the corridors at several occasions) but it works because of the great performances of the cast. It lost something in the third series when Simon only appeared periodically (he quits at the end of the second series) and more so in the fourth and final series when Simon, Kurt and Brian were all 'killed off', but it still proved to be a great British comic drama to the end. And here's an example of the very un-teacher-like behaviour of our characters. Kurt and Brian at their very best!