Lesson plan
A Small Problem
A Small Problem is a British sitcom originally broadcast on BBC2 in 1987. Intended as a satire on prejudice, and starring Christopher Ryan who had previously played Mike in The Young Ones, the show was set in a Britain with a form of apartheid based on people's height. Anyone below tall was forced to live in tower-block ghettos south of the River Thames. The main characters of the show were Howard (Christopher Ryan), a cheerful cinema projectionist always making fun of things and quoting classic movies, but revealed to be in a member of terrorist group Short Liberation Front; Roy Pink (Mike Elles), who at was previously considered normal height, but with new EEC regulations, he was now considered short as his metric height of now fell below the new 1.55 m mark, thus relegating him south of the River Thames, whilst he always refused to consider himself short and even insulted other short characters, whilst getting no help for his predicament from his tall brother George (David Simeon), who with his wife Heather (Joan Blackham) were trying to erase him out of their lives; Fred (Dickie Arnold), the elderly head of the tower-block's Residents Association, who with his wife Lily (Christine Ozanne) are trying to make the best of a bad situation, only seeming to be concerned about trivial matters and not the heightist apartheid; Jenny (Cory Pulman), and petition-wielding activist tryi…
Article summary
A Small Problem is a British sitcom originally broadcast on BBC2 in 1987. Intended as a satire on prejudice, and starring Christopher Ryan who had previously played Mike in The Young Ones, the show was set in a Britain with a form of apartheid based on people's height. Anyone below tall was forced to live in tower-block ghettos south of the River Thames. The main characters of the show were Howard (Christopher Ryan), a cheerful cinema projectionist always making fun of things and quoting classic movies, but revealed to be in a member of terrorist group Short Liberation Front; Roy Pink (Mike Elles), who at was previously considered normal height, but with new EEC regulations, he was now considered short as his metric height of now fell below the new 1.55 m mark, thus relegating him south of the River Thames, whilst he always refused to consider himself short and even insulted other short characters, whilst getting no help for his predicament from his tall brother George (David Simeon), who with his wife Heather (Joan Blackham) were trying to erase him out of their lives; Fred (Dickie Arnold), the elderly head of the tower-block's Residents Association, who with his wife Lily (Christine Ozanne) are trying to make the best of a bad situation, only seeming to be concerned about trivial matters and not the heightist apartheid; Jenny (Cory Pulman), and petition-wielding activist tryi…
Key claims
No claims recorded.
Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.