Saturday Playhouse
The Guinea Pig
1960, BBC
Role: Nigel Lorraine

From the plot synopsis of 1948 movie: Nigel Lorraine is the tutor of Jack Read, the subject of a social experiment. Read, son of a tobacconist, is sent to Saintsbury, a public school. He becomes surly and suspicious and is often reprimanded for his lack of respect for Saintsbury's guarded code of behaviour. Only Nigel Lorraine understands him.

Jack is determined to run away, but Lorraine catches him and points out that he is really running away from life. Though he agrees to give Saintsbury another chance, he remains an outcast. When Jack returns home for the Christmas holidays, his parents find him sullen and his backstreet friends are sarcastic. Soon he is defending the scheme for which he has hitherto shown contempt. Back at school, he shows that he can stand up for himself; he fights his battles more and more according to the Saintsbury code rather than to that of the back streets.

Lorraine has to tell Jack, however, that he is not good enough to win a scholarship to the University. When it is proposed that the school should provide bursaries for boys of limited means, the headmaster objects. Lorraine resigns in disgust. The headmaster eventually withdraws his objection and on his retirement asks Lorraine to take over his post. The experiment has succeeded the 'guinea pig' has stood the test.