The Demon Headmaster lead writer Emma Reeves and episode 6 writer Joseph Lidster explain some of the background to the most recent, gamechanging episode…

 

Emma:

In episode 6, the gang follow a trail of clues as they investigate the Headmaster’s mysterious past – and we writers went on a similar journey…

Throughout development, we’d been referring to the “original” school (where the Headmaster encountered Dinah Glass / Hunter and SPLAT) as St Champions. It was Joseph Lidster, the writer of episode 6, who commented that he couldn’t find a primary source for this appellation – in the original book and series, the school is deliberately unnamed. The only references to “St Champions” came from fan-written internet content.

We realised that “St Champion’s” had become fan lore but we couldn’t find a reason for it. I looked through all the books and published stories, and contacted Gillian Cross who sent us copies of some additional short stories written for magazines in the 80s and 90s – none of them named the school. Eventually I found “St Campion’s” mentioned in the script for the 1997 stage musical version. I thought perhaps an audience member had misheard “Campion’s” as “Champion’s” and suggested we use “St Campion’s” as the name for the spooky old school which the gang investigate in episode 6. Gillian, however, wasn’t a fan as she thought it sounded too overtly religious – so, St Champion’s it was.

Fanon became canon and Dinah’s old school finally had a name.

I will now hand over to Joseph Lidster to talk about episode 6 itself.

Joe:

When I was asked to join #TeamDemon I was thrilled because I remembered watching the original TV series and loving it. Myself and the other writers were called into a story-lining conference. Emma, as she’s previously talked about, originally developed this new version as a five-part series but had been asked to expand it to ten episodes. She’d worked out a structure for how this would work, and our job was to make suggestions and discuss ideas, with us then being assigned an episode each. And I immediately knew that I wanted either Episode 5 or 6, because of one thing – Blake.

Because, yes, the Demon Headmaster himself is a brilliant, terrifying creation. And yes, with Episode 6 I got to write what is clearly the most exciting line in television history: “My name is Dinah Hunter. If you are reading this then it is happening again.” And, yes, I’d been a big fan of the original series. But what fired me up most at the story-lining conference were these new characters – Lizzie, Tyler, Ethan, Angelika and Blake. In the original series, Dinah Hunter joins Splat – a group of kids who have come together to fight the Headmaster. And they’re fun. And they’re friends. And they’re a ready-made team for us to follow. In this new version, though, we’re following a much more interesting set of characters. Lizzie is bolshy and has anger issues and, other than her love for her family, feels as if she is lacking direction in her life – until she encounters the Headmaster. I don’t think she’d ever have been friends with Ethan and Angelika if they hadn’t found themselves in this situation. Both Ethan and Angelika have had hugely important parts of their lives wiped from their memories. They’re interesting characters who are developing and learning from each other and becoming friends as they try to break the system.

But it’s Tyler and Blake who fascinated me the most. Blake is a bully. He’s cruel and monstrous. But… does anyone deserve having done to them what the Headmaster has done to him? He’s constantly being told he isn’t good enough. In fact, he doesn’t even seem to go to lessons anymore – because what’s the point? He’s clearly stupid, talentless and is never going to amount to anything. And what I find terrifying (and therefore a thrill as a writer to explore) is… were things really that different before the Headmaster arrived? How quickly does society give up on someone? As with the parents signing up for the drones and Sophie choosing to be hypnotised so she can be good at something… what we’re exploring in this series is not just what the Demon Headmaster is capable of but also what people are capable of even when they have free will. The Headmaster doesn’t need to hypnotise anyone, to be honest. He just needs to manipulate them.

And Tyler. Sweet dorky little Tyler who is going on this journey from ignored little brother to hero… sells Blake out! To save his own skin he begs the Welcomers to take Blake to the Headmaster. These aren’t the fun innocent days of Splat! But then Tyler realises that he needs to tell Blake the truth because no matter what Blake is really like, him knowing the truth is better than him being in constant mental anguish. And, as he is about to discover, by being brave and standing up to Blake and selflessly telling him the truth despite what repercussions it might have for him… has he found a new ally for the team? Could “stupid bully” Blake and “sweet dork” Tyler actually overcome the roles they were defined as before the Headmaster arrived and actually become friends? And can these new developing friendships beat the Headmaster’s Fake News?

It was such a thrill to be a part of this series and I’m so grateful to the team for allowing me to be involved.

Fun fact: (well, as a massive geek, I think it’s fun). I was given the task of sending the new gang to the school from the original series. But where is the school? Presumably in the town from the original series? So, I found a Demon Headmaster Wiki… but no town is given. I’d watched the entire series and the town is never named in the dialogue. It’s clearly not London because they visit London in the second series. Should I just make up a name? Then I remembered! They visit London because Dinah “It is happening again” Hunter receives a letter. I went back to that episode, praying we’d get to see the address. And BOOM! Just for a second, there it was. The Hunter family lived at 8, Cedars Road… Conningham.