Tom Brown's Schooldays (TV serial) Tom Brown's Schooldays (TV serial) Tom Brown's Schooldays is a 1971 television serial adaptation of the Thomas Hughes novel "Tom Brown's Schooldays". It was originally screened on the BBC1 Sunday afternoon slot, which often showed serialisations of classics aimed at a family audience. It made some free adaptations to Hughes's novel, creating the role of Flashman's father, and writing new sub-plots about Flashman and Arnold. It also included some scenes of bullying and corporal punishment which may have been strong stuff for family viewing. "Clean-up TV" campaigner Mary Whitehouse claimed that the programme broke the BBC's guidelines on the depiction
Harry Potter influences and analogues a boy who arrives in this strange school to board for the first time and makes good, solid friends and also enemies who use bullying and unfair tactics", notes Fry, "then is ambiguous about whether or not he is going to be good or bad. His pluck and his endeavour, loyalty, good nature and bravery are the things that carry him through – and that is the story of Tom Brown's "Schooldays"". Fans of author J. R. R. Tolkien have drawn attention to the similarities between his novel "The Lord of the Rings" and the "Harry Potter" series; specifically Tolkien's