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Nine years after Jay Presson Allen's theatrical version of the Muriel Spark novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was adapted as a film with Maggie Smith in the title role, the property served as the basis for a seven-part British miniseries. Geraldine McEwan starred as Miss Jean Brodie, a highly unorthodox teacher in a 1930s Edinburgh private girl's school. Surrounded by adoring students, Miss Brodie did her best to instill the values of her pet political movement, Fascism, in the hearts of her "gels." Though the heroine was successful in countermanding the orders of her stern and fervently anti-fascist headmistress, she was finally defeated by the sly machinations of one of her students, who mounted a campaign to woo Miss Jean's beau away from her. In the end, Miss Jean's political fervor caused nothing but heartache and tragedy for everyone in her orbit. The TV version of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was shown via the ITV's Scottish Television service in 1978.