Lead writer Emma Reeves explains the logic behind the Headmaster’s new world as seen in episode 9 of The Demon Headmaster…

As I have mentioned before, The Demon Headmaster was originally conceived as a five-part mini-series before we expanded it to 10 episodes. And as we approached what would have been the final two-parter, time was running out…

The original plan had been for me to write episodes 9 and 10 as a two part finale, but as I’d been unexpectedly called upon to write another episode, the timing was getting extremely tight. We were well into filming Block One (episodes 1-5) and the team were getting desperate for scripts. So, script editor Cathianne Hall suggested that I write a detailed scene-by-scene breakdown of episode 9, that we ask Lucy Moore (recently finished on episode 8) to do the first draft of 9, and that I then took over for notes and tweaks. So that’s what we did, and it worked surprisingly well – thanks to Lucy’s brilliant talent and professionalism. So if you were wondering how the joint credit worked, that’s how!

At the end of episode 8, we learned that Lizzie and Tyler’s mum, “Mary” Warren was really Rose Carter – the old Headmaster’s favourite prefect. He maintained a disturbing amount of control over her even after leaving St Champion’s, summoning her to a rural research centre to do his will and sow mistrust between Dinah and Splat. Rose has always been one of the most iconic characters of The Demon Headmaster – is she the victim or the persecutor? And what, we wondered, is she doing now?

This twist had been part of our plan from the beginning, even though it’s not mentioned in the novel, Total Control. However, Mrs Warren’s illness is an important aspect of the book, and is never explained or defined – so we let our imaginations fill in the gaps. As Dinah explained previously, Rose suffered a breakdown in her late teens, and broke off all contact with her old school friends and acquaintances. The Headmaster’s interference with Rose’s brain, and her attempts to resist it and shake off his control, resulted in a mysterious neurological condition which no doctors could explain. As we saw in episode 8, giving in to the Headmaster’s conditioning can remove Rose’s pain – but at the cost of giving up her individuality and becoming the Headmaster’s pawn.

At the beginning of Episode 9, the Headmaster challenges the gang to a “democratic experiment” – and a desperate Lizzie agrees to allow him to show them how life could be better if they give in to him. The rest of the episode shows the Headmaster demonstrating the extent of his hypnotic powers – he can make people believe anything he wants them to believe, no matter how unlikely. He combines the Warrens and Prendergasts to create one bafflingly “happy family;” erases Rose’s memories of her illness and makes her his long-serving Deputy Head, and crushes Blake’s mum, Julie, making her subservient to her son. But the Headmaster also reminds us that he has other ways of controlling people; he silences Angelika by threatening her mum with prison. Even when he realises that Lizzie has seen through his illusion, he is intrigued rather than concerned.

As we discovered in episode 8, although the Headmaster has total confidence in his own abilities, he has worked out that he cannot efficiently maintain his dictatorship by hypnotism alone. He needs to put other systems of control in place – in fact, ideally, he wants people to share his own value system. He wants people to come to understand, and truly believe, that his way is best for everyone…

Is the blank-eyed tyrant showing a tiny glimpse of humanity at last? Is it possible that the Headmaster could ever wish to seek affirmation, even validation? Or is he simply seeking like-minded plenipotentiaries in order to efficiently administrate his world-wide regime of total control? Whatever the truth is, it’s clear that he has a deep interest in Rose and Lizzie. The Warren family will not escape from his clutches easily…