In the year of our Lord 1073, St Cuthbert built a fine academy Where chivalry and derring-do were taught if your parents had a groat or two Knight School, Knight School The knightly code of honour is the rule KnIght School, Knight School There’s dragon-slaying drama, You’ll suit a suit of armour, You’ll be a damsel charmer at Knight School
Common pauper Wally Scrope (Stuart Rooker) was awarded a scholarship (“for the unfortunate poor”) to the posh St Cuthbert’s Academy of Knightly Pursuance for Young Gentlemen – against the wishes of snobby deputy headmaster Sir Baldwin De’Ath (Roger Lloyd Pack) – in this medieval take on Grange Hill from Granada TV.
The rookie Knight spent most of his days at the fee-paying academy (where the sons of rich landowners were taught how to become dashing Lancelot-types) sticking the boot into his rich classmates.
His love interest was Lady Elizabeth de Gossard (Amy Phillips from Grange Hill), the head girl of nearby St Catherine’s School for Damsels. His chief rival was St Cut’s head boy and school bully, Sir Roger De Courcey (Blake Ritson).
Stars In Their Eyes presenter Matthew Kelly appeared as King Edward. Shane Richie was Wally’s grimy cousin Herbert Scrope, and Tony Robinson made an appearance as Godwin the Idiot. John Altman (nasty Nick Cotton from EastEnders) appeared in the second series as an evil wizard named Wormwood.
Stuart Rooker was plucked from classroom obscurity and thrust almost overnight into the limelight of national TV when a casting director for Granada TV contacted a teacher friend at Stuart’s school and asked if he had any pupils who had natural comic timing.
Stuart was approached and after a couple of auditions, got the part. The only acting he had done previously was a starring role in the school’s theatrical version of The King And I.
The first series of Knight School premiered on Tuesday 2 September 1997, at 4.40 pm. The second series ran from 3 September to 15 October 1998.
Wally Scrope
Stuart Rooker Lady Elizabeth de Gossard
Amy Phillips Sir Roger De Courcey
Blake Ritson Sir Baldwin De’Ath
Roger Lloyd Pack Sir Hubert Grindcobbe
Peter Jeffrey Buster Bollingbroke
Ciaran Griffiths Mr Scrubbe
Mark Billingham Sir Arthur Melton-Mowbray
Anthony Hamblin Sir Roland of Poland
Charlie Watts Grockle
Peter Cocks Godwin the Idiot
Tony Robinson King Edward
Matthew Kelly Wykeham
Tom Hudson Eunice Spongge-Bagley
Susie Williams (1)
Carly Hamilton (2) Wormwood
John Altman Mistress Genevieve Gently
Joanna McCallum Hector Spleen
David Ashton Mrs Scabbe
Anne Orwin Jasper Crouchback
Ramsay Gilderdale Professor Particle
John Jardine Dr Dispenser
Geoffrey Bayldon Herbert Scrope
Shane Richie Alf Scrope
Robert Pollard Greybeard
Paul Chapman
Episodes
The New Boy | Ladies Knight | Wally Meets Royalty | Wally Visits a Pop Festival | Chicken Heart | 07.10.97 || The Wooden Badge of St. Cuthbert’s | Elizabeth The Teenage Witch | Arabian Knights | Fright Night | Knight Fever | 08.09.98 | Boogie Knights
Common pauper Wally Scrope (Stuart Rooker) was awarded a scholarship (“for the unfortunate poor”) to the posh St Cuthbert’s Academy of Knightly Pursuance for Young Gentlemen – against the wishes of snobby deputy headmaster Sir Baldwin De’Ath (Roger Lloyd Pack) – in this medieval take on Grange Hill from Granada TV.
Stuart Rooker was plucked from classroom obscurity and thrust almost overnight into the limelight of national TV when a casting director for Granada TV contacted a teacher friend at Stuart’s school and asked if he had any pupils who had natural comic timing.
Wally Scrope
Buster Bollingbroke
Wykeham
