To Serve Them All My Days (1980–1981)

John Duttine: David Powlett-Jones

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Quotes 

• Boyer : [giving David the book "Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne"]  Do you remember, sir, back in the fifth, you said that if we wanted to know what war was really like, we should read that? You said you'd lost your own copy at Ypres or somewhere.

  David Powlett-Jones : I wouldn't have expected anyone to remember that.

  Boyer : What you said about it then, sir, was that it helped you get through. No matter how bad things were at the front, those 18th century soldiers had it worse, and if Sergeant Bourgogne could get through his war, then, well, maybe you could get through yours.

  David Powlett-Jones : I said all that, did I?

  Boyer : I thought it might help, sir. Well, you know, now.

• David Powlett-Jones : [after a student criticizes the 1926 coal strike]  When I was a young boy... much younger than any of you here, I went to school one morning, leaving behind a father and three brothers working on the early shift. That's 4am to midday. When I got home that evening, my father and two of my brothers were dead. Their bodies were never recovered. It was judged to be too expensive to be worth it.

• David Powlett-Jones : This is my first go at teaching - teaching schoolboys, that is. Up till now, the only teaching I've done is trying to teach recruits to look after themselves and not get shot their first week out. There wasn't time to be patient, see, and I never had to learn to suffer fools gladly. That might take me a bit of time, Mr. Dobson. Until I do, maybe you'd better keep your head down, eh?

• Howarth : Some men can live the celibate life. I don't fancy you're one of them.

  David Powlett-Jones : What did *you* do about women all these years?

  Howarth : [pauses, smiles]  Your appetite for sordid revelations never ceases to astonish me.

• David Powlett-Jones : [after learning Julia is moving to the U.S]  Why did you wait 'til now to tell me?

  Julia Darbyshire : Well... at first I was nervous. And... then I realized I wanted to go to bed with you one last time. And you are such a gentleman, David, I... I knew you wouldn't let me if I told you.

• David Powlett-Jones : [to Alcock after he expels Hislop for holding a bet on Sports Day]  Good God, man, if you expelled every boy who told a lie or made a bet you'd have no pupils left to pitch up and bully!