Up and down in the dales

Now in his fourth year as an Inspector for English in the Yorkshire Dales, Gervase Phinn still relishes visiting the schools - whether an inner city comprehensive fraught with difficulties or a small Dales primary school where the main danger is one of closure.

With endless good humour, he copes with the little surprise that occur round every corner.

Some things never change: Mrs Savage roars, Connie rants, and Gervase?s colleagues in the office play verbal ping-pong.

But all this can be put behind him each day when he returns home to his lovely wife, Christine, who is expecting their first child.

One day, their own son will surely take the limelight in the local primary school where the children?s contrived innocence never fails to win over even the hardest heart.