At a boys' grammar school in Sheffield, eight boys are being coached for the Oxbridge entrance exams It is the mid-eighties, and the main concern of the unruly bunch of bright sixth-formers is getting out, starting university - and starting life At the heart of 'The History Boys' are four characters, each with contrasting outlooks on teaching and school Hector, an eccentric English teacher with no interest in exams Irwin, a young supply teacher who sees history as 'entertainment' Mrs Lintott, a traditionalist, who teaches 'history, not histrionics' and, a Headmaster obsessed with results