St Trinian's

St Trinian's is one of the most famous and enduring movie franchises of all time, revolving around the comedy antics of a bunch of pupils at an all-girls' boarding school - where the students are all mini-criminals in the making and the staff are even worse!

Loved by audiences for more than 60 years (ever since the first movie The Belles of St Trinian's was released in 1954) in total, seven films have been made and an eighth is planned for release in 2018.

From 1946 -1952, the British franchise started life as a cartoon comic strip, created and drawn by cartoonist Ronald Searle. The girls were portrayed as juvenile delinquents and the staff as sadists in Searle's most famous strip.

The films have long outlived the original cartoon strip, and the early movies of the 1950s and '60s that were characterised by their famous theme song, the St Trinian's battle cry, were followed by a series of modern films in the 21st century.

The early films were distributed by British Lion Films and London films, and they featured an all-star British cast including Alastair Sim in a dual role as headmistress Millicent Fritton and her brother Clarence Fritton.

The staff included Beryl Reid as Miss Wilson the maths mistress, Joan Sims as Miss Dawn the gym mistress and Irene Handl as Miss Gale the English literature teacher. In the 1960 film, The Pure Hell of St Trinian’s, Sid James appeared as Alphonse O'Reilly, who is supposed to be taking the pupils on a cultural tour of Greece, but is secretly kidnapping them for a sheik's harem!

In 1980, The Wildcats of St Trinian’s was released, with a topical script that poked fun at the British trade union movement of the time, culminating in a wave of strikes and the 'Winter of Discontent'. The girls decide to form a trade union for British schoolgirls. Helped by Flash Harry (Joe Melia), this involved a fiendish plan to kidnap girls from respectable schools and replace them with St Trinian's agents.

In 2007, the modern franchise of films began with the launch of the first movie, St Trinian's, with Rupert Everett inheriting the role of Miss Fritton - continuing the tradition of having a male actor play the headmistress. The plot revolves around the potential closure of St Trinian's because the school owes the bank £500,000 and has ignored six final demands.

Flash Harry and the girls devise a devious plan to save the school by getting into the final of a TV quiz show, School Challenge, held at the National Gallery in London. Of course, it's not about winning the competition - this is just a smokescreen for their fiendish plot!

The St Trinian's team gets into the final by cheating in every round. Then, as the final is being filmed, some of the girls manage to steal the famous painting, Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring, from the National Gallery! Miss Fritton, a talented artist herself, paints an exact copy of the historic work of art and then Flash Harry poses as a German art dealer to sell it to the head's wealthy brother, Carnaby Fritton, in a black-market deal.

In another twist, the school then returns the original painting to the National Gallery, winning the £50,000 reward money, so all their ill-gotten gains combine to pay off St Trinian's debt to the bank and the school is saved from closure.

A second film, St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold, was released in 2009, with the girls hunting for buried treasure after discovering their headmistress is of pirate ancestry! The third modern outing, St Trinian's 3: Battle of the Sexes, is due for release next year. The plot revolves around Miss Fritton being arrested - and to the girls' horror, her replacement plans to turn St Trinian's into a co-ed school. They don't want boys at St Trinian's!!! But how can they fend off the latest threat to their beloved school?

While many young girls rebelling against the constraints of boarding schools in 20th century Britain would love to have gone to a school like St Trinian's, it was never likely to happen - they would probably be shut down! For today's real-life schools, Solent Plastics stocks a large range of classroom storage solutions. Our plastic storage boxes are suitable for all educational establishments, from the nursery to universities. If you need any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.