Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School (TV series) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School
Opening title
Starring	Gerald Campion Anthony Valentine Michael Crawford John Woodnutt Jeremy Bulloch Melvyn Hayes Kenneth Cope Roger Delgado
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	7
No. of episodes	52
Production
Producer(s)	Joy Harington Shaun Sutton Pharic Maclaren David Goddard Clive Parkhurst
Production location(s)	Esher Station, Esher, Surrey, United Kingdom
Running time	30 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC Television
Original release	19 February 1952 (1952-02-19) – 22 July 1961 (1961-07-22)

Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School was a popular BBC Television show. It aired from 1952 to 1961. The show was based on the funny Greyfriars School stories. These stories were written by Charles Hamilton, who used the pen name Frank Richards. Interestingly, Hamilton also wrote all the scripts for the TV show!

The main character, Billy Bunter, was played by actor Gerald Campion. He was 29 years old when he started playing a schoolboy. Many real child actors played the other schoolboys in the show. Some of them became famous later on. These included Anthony Valentine, Michael Crawford, Jeremy Bulloch, Melvyn Hayes, and Kenneth Cope.

Discovering Lost Episodes

Most of the episodes of Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School are now lost. This happened because old TV shows were often not saved. Only nine episodes still exist today. These were saved as special film recordings called telerecordings.

The complete third series, which has six episodes, was saved. Also, three other episodes were kept. These were one episode from each of the last three seasons. The BBC kept them as an "example" of the show. Some audio recordings of episodes also exist. These are owned by private collectors.

One special episode, "Double Bunter," from 1961, was saved. The BBC gave a copy of it to Gerald Campion. He loved this episode because he got to play two different characters. Years later, his family loaned it to the BBC Archives. This helped save a piece of TV history!

Sometimes, early episodes that were lost were remade. New actors were used for these remakes. This happened because Charles Hamilton, the original writer, was getting older and it was hard to get new scripts from him. In the show's final years, the producer decided to remake many old episodes. They even changed the setting of the show! In the very last episodes, Billy Bunter went on a holiday cruise around the Mediterranean Sea. He visited places like Egypt, Italy, and France.

Gerald Campion and a BBC film crew actually traveled to Malta. They filmed scenes there for the holiday episodes. In these episodes, a rich character named Lord Mauleverer lends his yacht. He takes some schoolboys, including Bunter, on a tour of famous holiday spots. Their teacher, Mr. Quelch, supervises them.

Meet the Characters and Cast

Many actors played the different characters over the years. Here's a look at the main characters and who played them in each series: