Hearts and Minds (1995 TV series)

For the 1996 BBC Northern Ireland political and current affairs television programme, see Hearts and Minds (1996 TV programme).

Hearts and Minds is a British television series created by Jimmy McGovern and first aired on Channel 4 from 16 February to 9 March 1995. The series won the Royal Television Society award for Best Serial Drama.^[1]

Hearts and Minds
Genre	Drama
Created by	Jimmy McGovern
Written by	Jimmy McGovern
Directed by	Stephen Whittaker
Starring	Lynda Steadman Christopher Eccleston David Harewood
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	4
Production
Producers	Tara Prem Ian Scaife
Cinematography	Graham Frake
Editor	Max Lemon
Running time	63 minutes
Production companies	Alomo Productions WitzEnd Productions
Original release
Network	Channel 4
Release	16 February (1995-02-16) – 9 March 1995 (1995-03-09)

The series is about a young teacher at a tough Liverpool high school. After working in a factory, Drew Mackenzie (Christopher Eccleston) manages to educate himself to become a teacher. He wants to share his idealistic approach to rising above his circumstances with his Liverpool students, but soon finds himself caught in the crossfire of racial tensions, homophobia, and the difficult home lives of the teenagers.^[2]

According to series creator Jimmy McGovern, the series was based in part on the three years he spent as an English teacher at the Quarry Bank school in Liverpool.^[3] The series was well reviewed by British critics, who praised its realism as compared to other well known school dramas.^[4]

Cast

• Lynda Steadman as Emma Mackenzie
• Christopher Eccleston as Drew Mackenzie
• David Harewood as Trevor
• Ian McElhinney as Alex
• Sara Mair-Thomas as Mo
• Peter Halliday as Shotton
• Pauline Black as Joanna
• Jonathan Dow as Maurice
• Peter Armitage as Norman
• Mark Womack as Archie
• Ann Joseph as Maggie
• Trina Ali as Sahira
• Paul Fox as Tony
• John Brady as kid