Television series

Educating Yorkshire

A documentary series following Thornhill Community Academy in Dewsbury, capturing the messy, funny, heartbreaking reality of secondary school life. It's intimate and unguarded—you're watching real teenagers navigate identity, struggle, ambition and friendship, with teachers who genuinely care. For anyone who remembers being young and wants to understand what being young looks like now.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you're drawn to patient observational documentary that lets a single school's staff and pupils carry the story, with its warmth and humour intact.

Skip it if you want a tightly plotted series with a clear arc, since this is a loose, episodic run of school days told in hour-long chunks.

What it asks of you: Sixteen hour-long episodes across two series, so you'll be giving it a few evenings of steady attention rather than a single weekend binge.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Grange Hill1978

A foundational British school drama that invented the template. Tackles serious issues—bullying, racism, disability—with surprising honesty and wit, never talking down to its young audience or sanitizing complexity.

But The production values are distinctly 1978-1980s, and the pacing reflects that era. Some storylines feel quaint now, though that's partly their charm.

Grange Hill poster

The Summer I Turned Pretty2022

Captures adolescence—self-discovery, first love, friendship tests—with genuine warmth and humor. The cast feels like real teenagers navigating real emotional stakes, not precocious actors playing cute.

But It's a glossier, more romantic vision than Educating Yorkshire's unflinching documentary eye. If you want grit over sentiment, this might feel too soft.

The Summer I Turned Pretty poster

Skins2007

Raw, urgent, fearlessly dramatizing what British teenagers actually experience—drugs, sex, mental health, friendship betrayals. The performances are electric and the writing doesn't flinch from consequences.

But Some episodes are genuinely dark and dealing with trauma; the tone can veer into melodrama. Later seasons lose the initial spark of the ensemble cast.

Skins poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Educating Yorkshire

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

My Own Private Idaho1991

Both understand that school and survival—whether academic or literal—are where young people discover who they are. Both refuse to sentimentalize struggle or condescend to youth.

A radical, poetic film about homeless youth in Seattle finding family in each other. It's visually inventive, emotionally raw, and treats its young subjects with complete dignity and complexity.

But It's experimental in structure and includes adult themes; it's not a conventional narrative. Some will find it challenging or uncomfortable.

My Own Private Idaho poster
More like this (8)

Friday Night Lights2006

An American high school drama that works because it's really about community, mentorship and belonging. The writing is smart, the acting naturalistic, and it finds real stakes in ordinary moments.

But It's set in Texas and revolves heavily around football culture, which may feel distant depending on your geography and interests.

Friday Night Lights poster

The Inbetweeners2008

A comedy that nails British adolescence—the awkwardness, the friendship dynamics, the constant humiliation. Genuinely funny without being cruel, warm underneath the cringe.

But It's a comedy, not a drama, so the emotional depth is lighter. Some humor relies on sexual situations that may not age well or appeal to all viewers.

The Inbetweeners poster

Kes1970

A masterpiece about a working-class boy in Yorkshire finding hope through a kestrel. It's tender, poignant, and captures the texture of life in a school where not all paths lead upward.

But It's in black and white, moves at a deliberate pace, and the ending is uncompromising. Some find it too slow; others find it essential.

Kes poster

Dead Poets Society1989

A film about a teacher who changes lives by helping students think for themselves. It's inspirational without being saccharine, and it trusts that teenagers have depth.

But It's a film, not a documentary, so the drama is heightened. Some find it manipulative; the ending divides people sharply.

Dead Poets Society poster

Never Let Me Go2010

A quiet, devastating story about young people navigating an uncertain future. It understands adolescence as a time of reckoning, when the world's unfairness begins to land.

But It's slow, melancholic, and doesn't resolve satisfyingly. If you need hope or momentum, this will frustrate you.

Never Let Me Go poster

The Breakfast Club1985

Five students in detention, stripped of their usual armor. It's funny, heartfelt, and genuinely about seeing past the surface—how much we judge and how little we understand each other.

But It's an American film from 1985, so the context and references date it noticeably. The resolution feels a touch neat for such messy subject matter.

The Breakfast Club poster

The Boys2019

Both examine institutional structures and the people trapped inside them, asking whether systems can genuinely change or whether they're designed to resist it.

A pitch-black satire about power, accountability and what adults owe young people. It's urgent contemporary drama that asks hard questions about systems failing those with no say in them.

But It's viciously dark, violent and angry—nothing like Educating Yorkshire's humane documentary eye. Completely different register and intent.

The Boys poster

Moonlight2016

Both understand that school is where you first see yourself reflected—or fail to. Both are interested in the internal lives of young people that documentaries and dramas usually gloss over.

A film in three chapters following a young man from boyhood through adolescence to adulthood. It's poetic, meditative, sensory—about isolation, identity, and what it costs to become yourself in an indifferent world.

But It's a slow, deliberately paced art film without a conventional plot. It assumes viewers will sit with ambiguity and emotion rather than resolution.

Moonlight poster

People

Cast

Production

Recommended by

Grange Hill, Byker Grove, 24 Hours in A&E, Seven Up!, Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School