I believe there is only one season of the German show.
Is there a subtitled version of „Il Collegio“?
It is hard to put the finger on the exact differences between the British and the German show.
In a way the German version is harsher and less harsh at the same time. For example the parting of the girl‘s hair was measured by a ruler in the German show and doom on any girl who didn‘t get it right. There was a huge non-smiling emphasis on appearance and properness (always leave the teacher’s room with face to him/her and back to the door etc.) In the British show I had the impression that despite of all the shouting and punishments the teachers and students involved were aware of the fact that it was an experiment after all. Also the British teachers/students partly had boarding/public school experiences themselves, so it had a more „natural“, real feel to it. Germany has very few boarding schools.
On the German show I often had the impression that many of the teachers and students took it dead seriously. There really was the goal of convincing the students of the superiority of the 50s system and actually many of the students were kind of convinced in the end. So it was an athmosphete of not messing about.
All of the teachers in the German show were pupils in the 50s themselves and they imitated the methods they remembered from back then which sometimes had an antiquated feel to it. One thing I liked about the German show was the fact that they interluded the show with comments from the students on what was happening. So you got the teachers’ and the students’ perspective.
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