Dr. Stephen Beech

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Full name: Dr. Stephen Beech

Nickname: Beech, Beechy-baby (Holloway), Tree-up-his-a** (and variations thereupon by pupils)

Age : 45

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Straight

Stereotype: The strict and often inflexible principal

Talents: Teaching, academics, scaring the living hell out of kids, determination, enforcement, finding loopholes, caring for family

Flaws: The arts (doesn't like them taking over school life), kids with unrealistic prospects, overtly cruel at points

Personality: Beech is a draconian snake of a headmaster. He rules (or at least tries to rule) the school with an iron fist, and is not afraid of doling out punishments or making students feel small. He sees the arts as a nice-to-do but nothing more, and objects to kids choosing them as a career path, since he feels "they'll be unemployed and on the dole queue as soon as they're out the doors - and I don't want that burden on my pension." In a strange, round-about way, he cares for the kids at his school, since he wants them to make (to him) the right choices and succeed (just in the right field), and sees what he does in school as "toughening them up for the real world." He cares deeply for his two daughters.

Description: Very tall, about 6'8, grey hair, steely eyes, permanent smirk or frown of disapproval, rarely seen in anything other than a crisp suit

Audition Song: N/A

Favorite Artists/ Music genre /bands etc: Classical Music - Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, Mozart, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, the "old greats."

Background: Beech grew up in England in a very wealthy and proper family. He was parceled off to boarding school, but saw it as the best thing his parents could have done for him, rather than go to school with those riff-raff. He studied Physics at Oxford before completing his Phd at Princeton. After trying to get a university job for a number of years (unsuccessfully), he completed a conversion to teaching and has been teaching at the boarding school for over 20 years now, 16 of which have been as principal. He wants to instill his same values in his students and wants them to make the right life choices. He regularly clashes with Holloway's exuberance (is often a stone's throw away from firing him) and Lucas' fight for what she believes in (but would never fire her due to her value as a teacher). He was married to his beautiful and spirited wife for almost 20 years (married at university and moved to the USA to be nearer to her family, since she was American), and they have two wonderful daughters, who he dotes upon. Unfortunately, his wife was killed in a hit-and-run car collision, and he has never gotten over her death, this making him only more harsh in his actions. He donates money to causes promoting road safety, and has more assemblies about personal safety (focusing on roads) than any other topic. Still, very few people know about his wife's death in school, and he wants to keep it that way.

Portrayer: Greg Davies

Other Information: Visits his wife's grave four times a year (her Birthday, Christmas, their Anniversary and the date of her death), but visits more often if he needs someone to talk to, and talks to her every night before going to bed (mundane things - how his day was, how the kids are, etc.)