Bromwell High is an adult animated series about a British high school in South London. It first aired on Teletoon in Canada and Channel 4 in the United Kingdom (incomplete run). It is a co-production between Hat Trick Productions in the UK and Decode Entertainment (currently WildBrain) in Canada. It was originally to be entitled Streatham Hill, but was renamed Bromwell High in January 2005. Streatham Hill is a real London suburb, while Bromwell is fictional.
Subsequent international purchases have seen the show screened in the United States on BBC America, on The Box in the Netherlands, dubbed to Spanish and Portuguese on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim in Latin America, on the ABC in Australia, on TVNZ's TV2 in New Zealand, and also dubbed in Quebecois French for the Canadian Télétoon network.
It focuses on three diverse troublemaking teen girls: Keisha, Latrina, and Natella, as they wreak havoc on their impoverished school and its teachers.
The show was designed by David Whittle, who is also responsible for illustrating the popjustice icons series of books.
The show represents a caricatured view of contemporary British society, while "delivering a surreal and outlandish viewing experience." For example, the majority of students at Bromwell High School are immigrant children from the Caribbean and Asia, and some of the male teachers are aging 'chavs'. Many of the characters on the show speak a very poor form of English, including the headmaster, Iqbal. Most of the teachers have an affinity for biscuits (sweets).
Due to the show was intended for both British and Canadian audiences, the characters sometimes use Canadian terms which are different from those heard in Britain. This can sometimes confuse viewers, especially on the occasions when Bromwell is referred to as a "public school"; in Canada, this means a provincial school, open to non-fee paying students, but in the UK, the term refers to a fee-paying, private school which attends the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. In fact, Bromwell would be correctly termed as a state school in Britain.
There are some other differences between the UK and Canadian versions of the show, notably that the UK version has a longer and slightly different version of the opening credits and theme, and the UK broadcasts were in the 16:9 (widescreen) aspect ratio, while the Canadian versions are cropped to a 4:3 picture.
The show is directed by Pete Bishop (who also directed and co-created with Steven Appleby and Frank Cottrell-Boyce the Captain Star TV series) and was created by Anil Gupta, Richard Osman, Richard Pinto, and Sharat Sardana (with Osman, Pinto and Sardana also contributing as writers to the show).
Characters Main characters Keisha Marie Christie is a African British teen with a strong voice, a big personality, and the tendency to shoot first and ask irrelevant questions later. She has attention deficit disorder and likes anti-establishment activity and physical violence, often assaulting people with little or no justification. She comes from a broken home and blames society for treating her badly because she is black. She is voiced by Gina Yashere, of whom she is a caricature. Latrina is a poor, supposedly attractive chav White British girl who is quite dimwitted but doesn't worry about grades. She is promiscuous and unsophisticated, but she acts with good intentions. She dismisses many things, such as "tolerance", "wheelchair access", and "not having babies", as "for gays". She is voiced by Nina Conti. Natella Tendulkar Gavaskar Srivastavah is the youngest child, and only girl, in a family of 12. She is an errant Asian British prodigy who uses her stunning intellect to manipulate pupils and staff alike. She is extremely articulate, ambitious, and somewhat arrogant (often rightfully so). She often tries to overcome depressing situations through reasoning, yet passionately abandons this when she realizes that the situation is either worse or better than originally thought. In any normal school Natella would be top of the class, but at Bromwell High — happy home of the underachiever — her cerebral prowess is considered nothing short of astonishing. She is voiced by Jo Wyatt.
Supporting characters Iqbal bin Ibrahim Maurice Kandallah Five years before his appointment at Bromwell High, Iqbal had escaped from Parkhurst where he was serving time for an unspecified crime. He subsequently met Mr. Bibby in Angola where they operated a diamond smuggling business together and "dabbled" in human trafficking. After being forced to leave Africa in a U.N. helicopter gunship, Iqbal arrived in England with nothing but the shirt on his back, a faded five pound note in his pocket, and a Bedford van's exhaust chamber full of state-of-the-art hydroponic equipment and marijuana seeds with the potential street value, when cultivated, of £80,000 (equal to £81,000 today). With these simple tools, he ran a mini-cab company and built an empire that today covers many thousand square feet.
Although he had no formal academic qualifications (he does not believe in science, which he calls "hocus-pocus"), Iqbal rose quickly through the ranks to become Headmaster on the night he won Bromwell High in a poker game.
Since he began his tenure, Bromwell High has consistently succeeded in avoiding closure — testament, surely to the quality of leadership he had provided.
Gregarious and larger than life, Iqbal is not a conventional Headmaster by any stretch. His language is colourful though his understanding of basic grammar is non-existent. He tries to make money any way he can, which often involves illegal and unethical practices. He holds very long meetings and assemblies that are often filled with irrelevant and/or ridiculous anecdotes or performances (known unofficially as "Item 53", due to the fact that in each episode the bizarre story/act is promptly followed by Iqbal saying "Next on our list, item 54..."). He can be manipulative and cocky but beneath the rough exterior lurks a conscience, and occasionally Iqbal surprises everyone with (rare) moments of humanity and pastoral excellence.
Iqbal's Bromwell High file number is 1. He is voiced by Simon Greenall (of I'm Alan Partridge fame).
Roger Bibby Roger Bibby read geography at Oxford University, where he won a Greco-Roman wrestling scholarship and had to pick an "academic" subject to graduate in.
In his first year, Mr. Bibby came under the spell of an emeritus professor whose study he accidentally wandered into one night thinking it was his own bed. It turned out that it was his own bed and that the "professor" was quite seriously mental. That night, a friendship began that eventually resulted in Mr. Bibby becoming a geography teacher.
Mr. Bibby is the Deputy Head of Bromwell High and the Geography teacher. Extremely articulate and knowledgeable, he has a very professional bearing. However, he is very stern and insensitive, and sometimes evil just for the sake of being evil (he has been known to be friendly with demons, and with Iqbal has links with the slave trade and diamond smuggling in Angola). In one episode he slapped Iqbal in the face just for crying. He is extremely manipulative, and therefore able to commit unethical acts with the Headmaster's consent.
Like the Headmaster, he is insatiably greedy and tries to make money through unethical practices. However, unlike the Headmaster, he is far more calculated when he implements his plans.
Mr. Bibby's Bromwell High file number is 159. He is voiced by Graeme Garden (of The Goodies fame).
Martin Jackson Martin read mathematics at Cambridge though he never graduated. He was physically and sexually abused by his tutor, the head of the mathematics department, the rest of the mathematics department, the rowing club, the varsity football and rugby teams and the Christian society.
He spent three years as a research project for the School of Medicine—his blood pressure was found to be high enough to clean car wheels. He did not die, he only whined continuously. Research on Martin led to the development of Prozac.
Despite the fact that he was, and still is, the only mathematics teacher in the school, it took Martin five years to gain promotion to Head of Mathematics Department. His teaching has been described by Ofsted as 'cocking shite'.
Martin is portrayed as an ineffectual teacher. He is in his late thirties, middle-class and lives in a Victorian terraced house near a council estate in southeast London.
When he teaches he does not discipline his students when they act contemptuously. He is also extremely neurotic, and panics at the thought of anything going wrong for him. He does not have a proper teaching qualification; only a certificate in plumbing technology. He often cheats on his wife, Carol Jackson, although he claims that "using a prostitute is not cheating."
When Martin messes up or does something wrong he often hits himself on the head and says "fuck" even when students are present.
Iqbal's nickname for him is "Mongo" (a variant of "mong", an offensive term implying mental retardation, derived from the original name given to Down's syndrome).
He was born Martin Shitely but took his wife's surname after marriage.
Martin's Bromwell High file number is 657. He is also voiced by Simon Greenall.
Carol Jackson Carol graduated from Hedgehog College, University of the Lake District, then attended teacher-training college at the Above Burger King School of Teaching, Oxford Street, London.
She then spent five years at the Amnesty International London office, waiting outside the main entrance. Nobody let her in but she did receive free psychiatric help and eventually accepted that she didn't work for Amnesty International and was in fact a nut.
She later met and married Martin Shitely, who took her name.
Carol is now an English teacher at Bromwell. She is in her 30s, wears organic clothes, and reads the Guardian. Carol understands people of all races and creeds except her husband Martin. She is discontented with the lack of intimacy and romance in her marriage; this is probably why she competes with Melanie Dickson for the attention of handsome men. She usually responds to Martin doing something stupid or wrong with "Oh, Martin, you idiot."
Carol's Bromwell High file number is 287. She is voiced by Doon Mackichan (from Smack the Pony).
Melanie Dickson Miss Dickson graduated from the University of Pudwacker Salt Flats with a First Class Honours degree in Chemical Biology.
She immediately gained bar work in London and very quickly rose up the ranks to become Bar Manager of "Alcoholiday", an Aboriginal-themed bar in London's Leicester Square.
She moved to Bromwell High thinking it was another themed bar, but within a year she realised that she was Head of Sciences at an inner-city school.
She is an attractive but very rude woman who shows a lack of proper teaching skills. She often taunts and teases people who aren't as pretty as she is, especially Carol.
Originally from Australia, Miss Dickson now teaches all the subjects at Bromwell that nobody else will (History/Science/Music/Etc.) - very poorly. She seldom cares about the subjects she teaches and even chain smokes during class. She competes with Carol Jackson for the affections of handsome men, mainly because she has an insatiable libido.
Melanie's Bromwell High file number is 349. She is voiced by Tracy-Ann Oberman.
Mr. Phillips Mr. Phillips grew up in the quiet, crack-addled village of Chomping Frenum on England's west coast. He went missing at age 10, after chasing a worm into the forest. He strayed into an army firing range and was hit by three medium-sized surface-to-air missiles. Fortunately they passed straight through his skull, but he lost 80 percent of his brain matter.
On his way to an interview for a post at Bromwell High, Mr. Philips was caught in the crossfire of a gang-war shoot-out and lost 80 percent of his remaining brain matter.