an unstable timeslot, being replaced in its more mainstream slot by Men Behaving Badly. Commenting on the second series, the Glasgow Herald said, "the manic depute head of Galfast High, Eric Slatt, is looking more and more like Basil Fawlty on a bad day. So are those of us who remain glued to it in ghoulish fascination to see if it can get any worse." Tabloid newspaper The Mirror published a damming review of the show's second series opener: The head of comedy at Television Centre deserves six of the best for bringing back Chalk (BBC1) for a second term. If the opening episode of the new series is anything to go by, we are in for six of the worst half-hours of comedy in the history of television ... It is no surprise that the show has been relegated to a late slot. It is a watershed for smut. Some of the jokes were in the worst possible taste. The standards of comedy are so pitiful, Galfast High School should not have been given a grant from TV licence-payers' money and it is time it closed its gates for good. David Bamber ... deserves a better vehicle for his acting talents. He was lured into playing Eric Slatt because the character was supposed to be the classroom equivalent of Basil Fawlty. They are as different as Chalk and Cleese. In an interview in the early 2000s, Moffat refused to even mention Chalk, joking that he might get attacked in the street. The first series received criticism from some teachers and teaching unions, who criticised the representation of their professions. Letters were printed in specialist publications such as the Education Guardian. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers labelled Chalk as "perverse" and "vapid", and its leader called upon the show to be axed. Teachers, according to the Daily Record, complained that the show portrayed teachers as "mentally unstable", and deterred people from entering the profession. John Grillo, who played Mr Carkdale, recalls that he was appearing in a West End play at the time he was auditioning for the role; a fellow actor in the play was meant to be auditioning for Chalk but, having been a deputy head teacher earlier in his career, was so disgusted by the material that he refused to attend. The unions' derision actually inspired The Times's Matthew Bond to like the show. However, despite