Eid Al Fitr 2021: Adel Imam’s ‘Madraset el-Moshaghbeen’ to be shown in colour on MBC’s Shahid

The move comes 47 years after its stage premiere in Cairo

Younes Shalaby and Adel Imam star in 'Madraset el-Moshaghbeen' (The School of Mischief). YouTube

An Eid classic will be presented in a new light over the holidays.

Almost 50 years since its Cairo stage premiere, the televised version of the Egyptian production Madraset el-Moshaghbeen (The School of Mischief) will be shown in colour for the first time.

Streaming on MBC online platform Shahid, under its paid subscription tier Shahid VIP, fans old and new can savour one of Egyptian actor Adel Imam's all-time great performances in a tale about a new teacher finding her way in a rough-and-tumble Cairo school.

The show will go on to be permanently available on Shahid, with the premiere date to be revealed soon online.

Inspired by a British film

If the plot line sounds familiar, it's because Madraset el-Moshaghbeen was inspired by 1967 British film To Sir, with Love starring Sidney Poitier.

Imam, alongside fellow comedy stalwarts Saeed Saleh and Younes Shalaby, as well as young rising star-at-the-time Ahmed Zaki, played a group of troublesome children who could only be controlled through the unorthodox methods of the new teacher, played by Soheir El Bably.

Written by acclaimed playwright and poet Ali Salem, the production was pivotal for both the Egyptian film and television industry with its cast of mostly newcomers going on to flourish in the proceeding decades.

It also remains a popular calling card for the golden era of Egyptian theatre – a 30-year period ending in the early 1980s – and became a staple of Eid programming across the region.

More classics on offer

Madraset el-Moshaghbeen is part of a growing number of classic Egyptian plays being made available on major streaming services.

In the run up to Eid Al Fitr in 2020, Netflix also rolled back the years by launching an Arabic Nostalgia section featuring 10 vintage productions, all of which remain available to stream today.

These include more Imam performances in 1976's Shahed Ma Shafsh Haga (The Witness Who Saw Nothing) and 1985's El Wad Sayed El Shaghal (Sayed the Servant).

Also included is 1982's Bye Bye London starring late Kuwaiti funnyman Abdulhussain Abdulredha and the dark Egyptian comedy Raya wa Sekina.

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