Waterloo Road (TV series)

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Waterloo Road
Cast of Waterloo Road
Genre	Drama
Creator(s)	Ann McManus & Maureen Chadwick
Starring	See "Cast" section
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	20 (as of the second series)
Production
Running time	Approximately 60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC One
Original run	March 9, 2006 – present
Links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Waterloo Road is a BBC television drama series set in Rochdale^[1], and is about a failing comprehensive school. The programme focuses on its teachers and students, and confronts issues of affairs, abortion, divorce and suicide, but is ultimately optimistic, showing that a few good teachers can change a school for the better.

It is produced by Shed Productions, the production company responsible for Bad Girls and Footballer's Wives. Those shows were made for a more adult audience, so it is apparent that this is very different to its predecessors. However, the show's producer, Claire Phillips, has said that she feels when the surface is scratched, and the pace, boldness and energy is recognised, it has Shed Productions written straight through the middle.^[2]

An eight part series was made and aired in 2006. It was then re-commissioned for a second series^[3], which is currently airing on Sunday nights at 8pm in Scotland and Thursday nights at 8pm in the rest of the UK^[4]. A third series, of 20 episodes, is expected to air as early as Autumn 2007.^[5].

1 Episodes
2 Cast
3 Crew
- 3.1 Writers
4 Criticism
5 Break in Transmission
6 DVD release
7 Series two
8 Footnotes
9 External links

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Waterloo Road episodes

[edit] Cast

[edit] Staff

Adult cast of Waterloo Road, Series One

Jack Rimmer, Acting Headmaster (prev. Deputy Headmaster; History Teacher)

portrayed by Jason Merrells, from 1x01 (2006-)

Kim Campbell, Head of Pastoral Care; Art Teacher

portrayed by Angela Griffin, from 1x01 (2006-)

Andrew Treneman, Deputy Headmaster; English Teacher (prev. Acting Headmaster)

portrayed by Jamie Glover, from 1x01 (2006-)

Tom Clarkson, English Teacher

portrayed by Jason Done, from 1x01 (2006-)

Izzie Redpath, Drama Teacher

portrayed by Jill Halfpenny, from 1x01 (2006-)

Lorna Dickey (prev. Clarkson), English Teacher (prev. Acting Head of English)

portrayed by Camilla Power, from 1x01 (2006-)

Steph Haydock, French Teacher

portrayed by Denise Welch, from 1x01 (2006-)

Grantly Budgen, Head of English

portrayed by Philip Martin Brown, from 1x01 (2006-)

Roger Aspinall, Chair of Governors; Sponsor

portrayed by Nick sidi, from 2x01 (2007-)

Davina Shackleton, PA to the Headmaster

portrayed by Christine Tremarco, from 2x01 (2007-)

[edit] Minor staff

Brian Vaisey, prev. Headmaster, now sectioned

portrayed by Jeff Merchant, 1x01 only (2006)

Russell Millen, Trainee teacher (prev. PC)

portrayed Stuart Graham, 2x07 only (2007)

[edit] Students

Donte Charles, Student

portrayed by Adam Thomas, from 1x01 (2006-)

Chlo Grainger, Student

portrayed by Katie Griffiths, from 1x01 (2006-)

Mika Grainger, Student

portrayed by Lauren Drummond, from 1x01 (2006-)

Janeece Bryant, Student

portrayed by Chelsee Healey, from 1x02 (2006-)

Lewis Seddon, Former student (excluded 1x08)

portrayed by Craig Fitzpatrick from 1x03 (2006-)

Brett Aspinall, Student

portrayed by Tom Payne, from 2x01 (2007-)

Maxine Barlow, Former student

portrayed by Ellie Paskell, from 2x04 (2007-)

Leigh-Ann Galloway, Student (excluded 2x03)

portrayed by Holly Matthews, from 2x01-2x03 (2007)

Celine Dixon, Student

portrayed by Zeriozha Burt-Skeete, from 2x02 (2007-)

Stacey Appleyard, Student

portrayed by Holly Grainger, from 2x05 (2007-)

[edit] Future Newcomers

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Dale Baxter, Student

portrayed by Jack O'Connell, from 2x09 (2007-)

Lyndsey Woodham, Headship candidate

portrayed by Michelle Holmes, from 2x09 (2007-)

Jerry Preston, Unknown

portrayed by Paul Birchard, from 2x11 (2007-)

Jed Seddon, Relation to Lewis Seddon

portrayed by Michael Keogh, from 2x11 (2007-)

[edit] Crew

[edit] Writers

Details of writers and directors for each episode can be found at List of Waterloo Road episodes

[edit] Criticism

The first series achieved fairly good viewing figures for its timeslot; around five million.

However, the programme was criticised by some headteachers, due to it damaging the reputation of schools. Some said it was working against Tony Blair's respect agenda.^[6]

Waterloo Road did achieve recognition, in winning the Best New Drama Series award at the TV Quick & TV Choice ceremony.^[7]

Recently, the show was also nominated in the 2006 Stonewall Awards: the show's creator, Ann McManus, for Hero of the Year and Waterloo Road for Broadcast of the Year.^[8] However, the program didn't win either of the awards.

The show is also noted for containing moderate strong language and sexual references before the 9pm watershed and containing many songs from popular indie bands such as Bloc Party and Arctic Monkeys in between scenes

[edit] Break in Transmission

It was reported on 23 February 2007 on media website, Digitalspy, that the current series of Waterloo Road is to take a two week transmisson break after episode 7, to make way for Comic Relief Does Fame Academy. The two thursday episodes, that were to screen on March 8th and March 15th will now be screened on March 29th (episode 8), and April 5th (episode 9) episode 8 was due to be screened on March 22nd but in its place was an hour long EastEnders.

[edit] DVD release

The DVD release of the first series of Waterloo Road was on 26 March 2007. The set had three discs with all eight episodes, however, did not include any bonus material.

[edit] Series two

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The twelve part second series aired on January 18th 2007 and featured a number of new main characters; Brett Aspinall played by Tom Payne, Roger Aspinall played by Nick Sidi and Davina Shackleton played by Christine Tremarco.

On January 4, 2007, BBC One began advertising the second series, stating that the new series was "coming soon". It began airing on BBC One Scotland on January 14, 2007 and in the rest of the UK on January 18, 2007.^[9]

The series also features the return of Lorna, after she was going to commit suicide in the first series finale. This comes a shock to Tom and Izzie, who were expecting their first child together, Until a fight between Izzie and Lorna caused Izzie to miscarriage the baby. ^[10]