Alex Cox/Hurricane Films BBC Schools film

BBC Children’s Education recently commissioned award-winning production company, Hurricane Films, to make a 30-minute drama from feature director Alex Cox, (best known for Repo Man and more recently Revenger’s Tragedy).

The film, I’m a Juvenile Delinquent - Jail Me! was transmitted on 15th January 2004.

The film throws the spotlight on reality television, using it as a model to help young people think about how they take control of their own lives. For broadcast in the BBC Schools overnight Learning Zone slot, the drama focuses on a group of fifteen year-olds who are manipulated into committing crimes for a TV audience hungry for more and more outrage on screen, the ultimate in bad reality television. Aimed at 14-16 year olds, it is to be viewed with guidance from a teacher who can lead a debate on the issues raised.

BBC Schools Commissioner, Karen Johnson, says: This modern morality play continues BBC education’s strong support for Citizenship issues, in the same vein as the BAFTA award-winning Offside. We look at a world in which questions about empowerment, control and manipulation are addressed, allowing teachers and pupils to debate where power lies in an apparently free society. Set in the frothy/lightweight context of teen life, the drama offers different views of free choice and determinism, to inform and enrich classroom debate about our own rights and responsibilities - and ramifications of the choices we make on behalf of other people, as well as ourselves.”

Producer Sol Papadopoulos, whose last drama for the department - Dead Drunk - won an RTS Education Award in June 2003, commented: “Jail me! is a powerful spoof about social responsibility and the impact of reality TV on a young audience. The film will undoubtedly generate lengthy discussion and I’m sure young people will appreciate Alex’s take on the world.”