French TV Series: Mixte on Amazon Prime

It’s 1963 and Voltaire High School is one of the first in France to become co-ed. Of course within minutes of girls arriving in school, a fight breaks out, a boy loses an eye (yep!) and mayhem ensues. The (male) teachers are up in arms and everyone is begging the headmaster to put an end to the doomed ‘social experiment’.

The series – which you can watch on Amazon Prime – may have been billed as a light-hearted comedy but it has surprising depth and tackles issues such as homosexuality (one of the teachers is a closeted gay man married to the school nurse), the barriers to social mobility, gender inequality and teenage pregnancy.

Put simply, it’s brilliant. Here’s hoping plans are in place for a second season…

Creator: Alexandre Castagnetti and Edouard Salier
Starring: Pierre Deladonchamps and Nina Meurisse

From France Today magazine