Just William

1950s schoolboy William Brown and his gang the Outlaws are forever getting in and out of scrapes, including trespassing at Croombe Hall, recently acquired by parvenu table sauce tycoon Mr. Bott and his cheery, expansive wife. They have a lisping, sweetly beribboned six year old daughter Violet Elizabeth, with whom a reluctant William is encouraged to play.

A visit from African explorer Uncle Neville prompts William into giving a lecture on 'Interestin' Animals' but with only a dead mouse as a prop he finds himself woefully short of creatures to illustrate his talk. Until sister Ethel's rival boy-friends George and Hector both bring parrots to cheer her up when she has suspected measles.

Already unhappy as his friend Bob Andrews, the Botts' gardener, has been sacked, a bad school report does nothing to lift William's spirits. Efforts to forge a better report are no more successful than his initial attempt to blackmail Mr. Bott into reinstating Bob.

William is not keen to take part in a school competition to stage the best scene from 'Hamlet' until he sees it as an opportunity to impress the tomboyish Dorinda, so he is annoyed when class swot Dalrymple gets the name part and he is relegated to being a spear carrier.