Funny you should be so tired, so early in the day...
The Demon Headmaster is a book written by Gillian Cross in 1982. The story concerns Dinah Glass, an orphan who's just recently been fostered by the Hunter family. On her first day at her new school, she makes some interesting observations:
- First: All the students are wearing a green uniform. Not only that, but they behave in an oddly uniform manner, using recess to memorise lessons learned in class, and marching around the halls.
- Second: All the students, when asked of their opinion about the school, say "The Headmaster is a marvellous man, and this is the best school I've ever been to."
- Third: There are six prefects (three boys, three girls), who are directly employed by the Headmaster to keep order.
- Finally, when she actually meets the Headmaster, she learns that not only is he a serious stickler for order, but he also has the ability to hypnotize people merely by looking at them.
Fortunately, she discovers that her foster brothers are incapable of being hypnotized in such a manner, and have formed a group with three other students known as SPLAT (the
Society for the
Protection of Our
Lives
Against
Them).
Following on from the success of that book, Cross wrote a second book,
The Prime Minister's Brain, where Dinah encounters the Headmaster again when he tries to access the Prime Minister's computers in the guise of running a computer competition.
The third book,
Hunky Parker is Watching You (aka
The Revenge of the Demon Headmaster) follows SPLAT as they become entranced in a new
Merchandise Driven franchise,
Hunky Parker (an "ed-U-cated" pig). Dinah (for once, the only one
not entranced) discovers that the show not only uses
Subliminal Seduction, but that the Headmaster is (surprise surprise) behind the whole thing, even going so far as to use a large holiday centre as a sort of sweat shop.
This was followed by
The Demon Headmaster Strikes Back, with the Headmaster this time running a Biogenetic Research Centre, which is researching the ability to clone people.
The Demon Headmaster Takes Over follows on directly from the last one, with the Headmaster
's clone developing a computerised brain and then losing control of it.
The final book in the series is
Facing the Demon Headmaster, where SPLAT once again run up against the Headmaster, who is this time involved with a new club.
The series was adapted for television by the BBC. The first season was adapted from the first two books, the second from
The Demon Headmaster Strikes Back, and the last from
The Demon Headmaster Takes Over. (
Hunky Parker is Watching You was skipped, and
Facing the Demon Headmaster was published several years after the TV series ended.)
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