''Education'' is a 2020

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by Steve McQueen and co-written by McQueen and Alastair Siddons. The film was released as part of the anthology series '' Small Axe'' on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

on 13 December 2020, in the Netherlands on 16 December 2020, and on Amazon Prime Video on 18 December 2020.

Cast

* Kenyah Sandy as Kingsley Smith * Sharlene Whyte as Agnes Smith *

Tamara Lawrance Tamara Naomi Lawrance (born 1994)Bowie-Sell, Daisy '' WhatsOnStage''. 14 February 2017. is a British actress. She is known for her performances as Prince Harry's republican girlfriend in the 2017 BBC television film ''King Charles III'', and as ...

as Stephanie Smith * Daniel Francis as Esmond Smith *

Josette Simon Josette Patricia Simon is a British actress. She trained for the stage at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, and played the part of Dayna Mellanby in the third and fourth series of the television sci-fi series ''Blake's 7'' fro ...

as Lydia Thomas *

Naomi Ackie Naomi Ackie (born 22 August 1991) is an English actress. She made her television debut as Jen in the ''Doctor Who'' episode " Face the Raven" (2015). For her role as Bonnie on the television dark comedy-drama series ''The End of the F***ing World ...

as Hazel * Ryan Masher as Joseph * Jairaj Varsani as Sajid * Tabitha Byron as Sheila * Roshawn Hewitt as Baz * Aiyana Goodfellow as Nina * Nathan Moses as Ashley *

Jo Martin Jo Martin (born 29 April) is a British actress. She played Natalie Crouch in the BBC One sitcom '' The Crouches'', which aired between 2003 and 2005. She joined the cast of ''Holby City'' in 2019 as neurosurgeon Max McGerry. Martin portrayed a ...

as Mrs. Tabitha Bartholomew *

Kate Dickie Kate Dickie (born 1971) is a Scottish actress who has appeared in television series, stage plays and films. She is known for her television roles as Lex in the BBC series '' Tinsel Town'' (2000–2001) and Lysa Arryn in the HBO series '' Game ...

as Miss Gill * Stewart Wright as Mr. Baines *

Jade Anouka Jade Anouka (born 12 June 1989) is an English actress. She is known for her various stage roles and for her appearances in ''His Dark Materials'' on BBC One and the ITV dramas ''Trauma'' and '' Cleaning Up''. Early life and education Anouka w ...

as Mrs. Morrison *

Adrian Rawlins Adrian John Rawlins (born 27 March 1958) is an English actor best known for playing Arthur Kidd in ''The Woman in Black'' and James Potter in the ''Harry Potter'' films. In 2019, he starred in ''Chernobyl'' as Nikolai Fomin. Early life Rawlin ...

as Headmaster Evans * Nigel Boyle as Mr. Hamley

Background

Although the characters in ''Education'' are fictional, the film is based on real-life events of the 1970s, when some London councils followed an unofficial policy of transferring disproportionate numbers of black children from mainstream education to schools for the so-called "educationally subnormal". The practice was exposed by educationalist

Bernard Coard Winston Bernard Coard (born 10 August 1945) is a Grenadian politician who was Deputy Prime Minister in the People's Revolutionary Government of the New Jewel Movement. Coard launched a coup within the revolutionary government and took power f ...

in his 1971 pamphlet '' How the West Indian Child is Made Educationally Sub-normal in the British School System''.

Reception

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 29 critic reviews, with an average rating of 8.05/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "''Education'' casts its hopeful gaze on the future, offering a simple and effective end to the Small Axe series that solidifies Steve McQueen splace as a master storyteller."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

assigned the film a weighted average score of 88 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "universal acclaim." Peter Debruge of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' praised ''Education'' for its "clever" approach to portraying the subtle ways in which segregation occurs in early education without "being reductive about the institution or its employees." He compared the film's "grainy, naturalistic" style to the works of Alan Clarke and '' Play for Today''.

References

External links

* {{Steve McQueen (director) 2020 television films 2020 films 2020 drama films British drama films 2020s English-language films 2020s British films Films directed by Steve McQueen Dyslexia in fiction