“The Grammar School: a Secret History (BBC Four) was only secret insofar as it asked lots of people who might not have been asked before what going to grammar school was like. In other words, solid, oral testimony where someone has taken the time to ask the right question to the right people, rather than spending 20 minutes in front of Google. As a result it cut through much of the romanticised poppycock that is spoken about grammar schools as part of the never-ending education debate (one that grammar schools helped create).

This was the first of two hour-long parts and it made stately progress from discussion of the initial ideal – giving the very best education to Britain’s brightest children, however humble their background – to the more mottled reality. There was the good (grammar schools imbued loyalty, pride, courage and excellence; five consecutive prime ministers can’t be wrong) and there was the not so good (the 11+ left many children haunted: “I have no recollections of which questions I got right but I have forever of the ones I got wrong,” said one woman). And, as the film rightly showed, many children who didn’t get into grammar school did just fine, too.

Episode one took us to the beginning of the Sixties. We now await the crowning irony of what came next – the phasing out the grammar school system at the height of its power by the very people it benefited the most.”

Source

Part one can still be viewed on the BBC iPlayer with Part 2 being shown on BBC next Thursday 12 January 2012.

Addendum: The BBC iPlayer is viewable by UK nationals up to seven days after transmission. However, I am sure that the station will repeat this excellent mini-series at some point in the near future.