identifying "genuine humour" such as Slatt's rant against French teachers, Bond's review is largely critical. He concedes, "the teaching organisations, you see, are half right. Slatt has no credible basis in the teaching profession, but far more importantly he has no credible basis in the human race. And what we don't believe in, we rarely find funny." Kevin Lygo, the show's executive producer and head of Independent Commissions Entertainment, who commissioned the series defending the show from the union's criticisms, saying: "Chalk is a comedy. Just as Ben Elton's Thin Blue Line does not reflect the modern police force nor The Vicar of Dibley the Church of England today, Chalk was never intended to reflect life in British schools." Moffat said that Chalk was written "just for larks" and was not intended as a serious political diatribe. However, Scotland on Sunday responded in a piece placing Chalk in the context of other television shows about schools: "where such dramas fall down is not in shirking some contrived social responsibility but in their playing up to so many daft myths about the teaching profession. They could almost be written by one of those strange politicians who deny there is an education crises in Britain." Home release The first three episodes were released on VHS in the United Kingdom on 7 September 1998 by BBC Video (now 2entertain). During a DVD audio commentary for Coupling, Moffat claims that "no-one bought it", including him. The complete first series was released on Region 2 PAL DVD by ReplayDVD, the independent label that had released Joking Apart, on 15 December 2008. The disc contains audio commentaries on all six episodes; Nicola Walker, Martin Ball, Geraldine Fitzgerald and John Grillo commentate over four of the episodes, with David Bamber and Amanda Boxer contributing to the remaining two. All of the above, along with producer Andre Ptaszynski, also feature in a 45-minute retrospective documentary, After the Chalk Dust Settled.'' Series 2 has received no home media release of any kind. References External links 1997 British television series debuts 1997 British television series endings 1990s British sitcoms 1990s British workplace comedy television series 1990s high school television series BBC television sitcoms British high school television series English-language television shows Television series about educators