He accepts a teaching job at St. Bernadette's Primary School, taking over the class formerly taught by Mr Maddens, who by this point has left for the United States.

This movie stars Martin Clunes, Marc Wootton and Catherine Tate, with Celia Imrie and Jason Watkins.

Jeremy Shepherd is a super teacher (as Desmond Poppy thinks he is) who is the father of Lauren and is due to marry his fiancée Sophie in New York on Christmas Eve.

He is moved to Coventry by social worker Miss Shelly and joins St Bernadette's Primary School, where he meets a new teaching assistant, Jerry Poppy, who assists him in his search for his father amid another Christmas musical production for the school, led by impresario Emmanuel Cavendish.

[7] Producer Nick Jones revealed that they had so far "politely declined" offers to make American and Australian remakes.

[8] A stage musical adaptation of the first film written and directed by Debbie Isitt and composed by Nicky Ager opened at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in October 2017.

Since its world premiere the musical has toured the UK over the Christmas seasons, including runs at London's Hammersmith Apollo which have featured guest star celebrities such as Louis Walsh, Danny Dyer, Dani Dyer, Jo Brand, Rylan Clark-Neal and Sharon Osbourne.