TELEVISION BRIEFING / Deportment stories

Carlton have taken no chances with their first network drama. HEAD OVER HEELS (9pm ITV), Jane Prowse's seven-parter, seeks the safe haven of a rock'n'roll period setting. Expelled from numerous schools, malcontented teenager Camilla (Jackie Morrison) lands up in the Gracie Ellis Academy of Elegance - thanks to a donation from her nouveau riche father towards the institution's new powder room facilities. Miss Ellis (Ann Bell) instils in her pupils the virtues of getting into a car correctly and speaking in pretentious French. Fed-up with walking around with a book on her head in pretty frocks, Camilla dons her personalised leather jacket and finds solace with Miss Ellis's hunky nephew Jimmy (Ian Embleton), who is so rebellious he owns his own record collection - if not the gramaphone to go with it. After a run-in with Miss Ellis, Camilla encourages Jimmy to do up his greasy spoon caff as a glam rock'n'roll coffee bar and they dance into the night. A solid, rather than a sparkling drama debut from ITV's brashest newcomer.

WRITING ON THE LINE (11pm C4), a new four-part series from Teliesyn, examines how writing and politics are intertwined. In Mary Shelley - Maker of Monsters, Gwyneth Strong (seen recently in Nice Town) plays both the novelist and her creation, Dr Frankenstein. Professor Gwyn A Williams suggests that far from the Gothic horror story of popular understanding, the novel Frankenstein is in fact 'a speculative morality play' about alienation.

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