The adventures of Bryan Boyes, an artful dodger who uses his keen brain to scheme rather than employ it for school work. Bryan's forte is pulling the wool over the eyes of his contemporaries and elders, so he is always one jump ahead of his teachers, the school bully 'Slug' and the other unsavoury characters who cross his path. An assortment of petty criminals are undone by his genius and a number of baffling mysteries are solved, but while Bryan's dad is completely taken in by his son's innocent facade, his mother isn't fooled so easily: she knows that behind his angelic features devilish plots are being hatched.

Writers Jim Eldridge and his son Duncan had created the character for the 'Diary Of X' sections of the best-selling children's books How To Handle Grown-Ups, What Grown-Ups Say And What They Really Mean, and More Ways To Handle Grown-Ups. When the BBC expressed an interest in making a TV show based around the diarist, the authors had to come up with a name for the character and so BAD (Bryan Arthur Derek) Boyes was born.

Jim Eldridge also wrote a school-based comedy for BBC Radio 4, King Street Junior (25 March 1985-31 May 2002), aimed at a more mature audience.