'If....' was a shameless plagiarism of 'Zero de Conduite', but Mario Zampi had already anticipated the anarchistic shenanigans of Anderson's film (aided and abetted by his regular collaborator Michael Pertwee, whose abrasive cynicism had already complemented Zampi's genial good humour on several previous occasions and who's script here manages to reference both Castro and the volatility of the Middle East) with far less conceit and self-regard in this big screen version of the TV series 'Wacko!'

Jimmy Edwards' venal and sadistic headmaster with a taste for corporal punishment was already a long-established comic figure in a tradition that extended back at least as far as Beachcomber's Narkover stories and the films of Will Hay (to whom the presence of Martita Hunt provides a direct visual link).