Waterloo Road (TV series)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Waterloo Road | |
|---|---|
| Format | Drama |
| Created by | Ann McManus & Maureen Chadwick |
| Starring | Neil Morrisey; Jamie Glover (Series 1 & 2); Denise Welch Angela Griffin (Series 1 & 2, 4-); et al. (see list of characters) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 40 (as of 13 March 2008) see list of episodes |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Shed Media for the BBC |
| Running time | 60 minutes (approx.) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC One |
| Picture format | 576i (SDTV) |
| Original airing | 9 March 2006— |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Waterloo Road is a BBC television drama series set in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England,[1] and is about a troubled comprehensive school. The programme focuses on its teachers and students, and confronts issues of affairs, abortion, divorce and suicide.
Waterloo Road is produced by Shed Media, the production company responsible for Bad Girls and Footballer's Wives. [2] It is filmed in Manchester, England, however controversially, it had been billed as being filmed by BBC Scotland to raise the Scottish division's quota of UK-wide network programming.
An eight part series was made and aired in 2006. It was then re-commissioned for a second series[3], where the first seven episodes were airing on Sunday nights at 8pm in Scotland and Thursday nights at 8pm in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.[4]
Waterloo Road has been compared to numerous school dramas such as Teachers.
Series 2 finished airing 26 April 2007. Series 3 began on 11 October 2007 on BBC One except on BBC One Scotland where the series began four days earlier. Series 3 paused from airing for the Christmas break. Episodes halted in England, Wales and Northern Ireland with the end of year Cliffhanger on 13 December 2007 and 16 December 2007 in Scotland. Episodes resumed airing in Scotland on 6 January 2008 and in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on 10 January 2008. The series finale aired on BBC One on Thursday 13 March 2008 in most of the UK apart from Scotland, who were left to wait until Monday 17 March 2008. A fourth series of 20 further episodes will air in late 2008 / early 2009 - exact dates are unknown to the public at this current time.
Contents |
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Cast
[edit] Crew
[edit] Writers
Details of writers and directors for each episode can be found at List of Waterloo Road episodes
[edit] Guides
[edit] Series One (2006)
The first episode of Waterloo Road was broadcast on 9 March 2006 and introduced a range of core characters including Jack Rimmer, Andrew Treneman and Kim Campbell, all three of whom are central to the running of the school. Through the 8-part run of series 1, the school faced closure from the governors due to the lack of pupils and bad publicity it had been receiving prior to Jack's appointment as the new headteacher. but managed to keep the school open. Jack Rimmer is only given the job as headteacher when the previous head has a nervous breakdown, throwing his files and books out onto the playground.
[edit] Series Two (2007)
The twelve-part second series aired on 18 January 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 4 January 2007, BBC One began advertising the second series as coming soon. It began airing on BBC One Scotland on 14 January 2007 and in the rest of the UK on 18 January 2007.[5]
The series featured the return of Lorna, following her attempted suicide at the end of series 1. This came as a shock to Tom and Izzie, who were expecting their first child together, until a fight between Izzie and Lorna caused Izzie to miscarry the baby. But in episode ten (of twelve, aired 8pm on 12 April 2007) Lorna realises Tom isn't the one for her, and that her MS and her career are making her life too stressful. She walks out of the school a part-way through one of her lessons and quits her job. However, she then re-unites Izzie and Tom having invited them both to a country cottage, before committing suicide rather than living on with MS. In the last episode of the second series, Izzie sees Jack being attacked and comes to try and help him, but then gets stabbed herself by the attacker. With only Jack there with her, and no one around, we are left hanging to whether Izzie survives the stabbing or not. [6]
A portion of the soundtrack featured in series two was provided by Cornish band, Thirteen Senses.
[edit] Series Three (2007–2008)
The third, 20-part series began in October 2007 with several new characters including a new deputy head teacher played by Neil Morrissey and by episode seven a new headmistress played by Eva Pope.[7]
The third series began with 5.1m viewers, peaking at 5.6m viewers at 8:45pm, around the same viewing figures as ITV's The Bill.
The first episode began with headmaster Jack Rimmer (played by Jason Merrells) listening to a radio documentary which featured the death of his colleague Izzie Redpath (played by Jill Halfpenny). Jack had witnessed Izzy's stabbing at the very end of the last series, although until then it had not been revealed that she had died.
The second half of the third series began on 10 January, which was the first time any episode has premiered simultaneously in all of the UK. The third series finale aired on 13 March 2008 in most of the UK. The series finale will however be broadcast on Monday 17 March on BBC One Scotland due to BBC Scotland's live coverage of the UEFA Cup tie between Rangers and Werder Bremen in Waterloo Road's usual Thursday evening slot.
The London based band Athlete have had various tracks from the 2008 released album Beyond the Neighbourhood featured in most episodes of Series 3.
The final episode attracted 6 million viewers.[8]
In the final episode of Series 3 a fire spreaded through the school leaving three people fighting for there lives.
It is currently airing in New Zealand on TV One
[edit] Series Four (2008–2009)
According to Shed Media's latest Interim Report Results a 20 episode fourth series of Waterloo Road has been commissioned for 2008, this will bring the total number of episodes to 60.[9]. In an interview, published in the Daily Express Magazine on 1 March 2008, Angela Griffin who played Kim Campbell in Series 1 & 2, revealed she will be returning for the new series. Chris Geere, who plays the character of Matt Wilding in the show, also revealed that two former cast members will return for Series 4 of the show, and that there were rumours going around that the show may change to a weekly format being show for most of the year, similar to Holby City.[10]. It is unclear if Davina Shackleton (played by Christine Tremarco) will be returning to the series, as she suffered smoke inhalation as a result of the fire , The new series is expected to air at the end of 2008. Filming for the new series began on the 12th May 2008. Actor Tim Healy, husband of Denise Welch, has joined the cast, he will play a security guard, Dave Miller, an ex-cop hired by the school following a major incident.
[edit] DVD Video release
Waterloo Road: Series 1 was released in the UK on 26 March 2007. Series 2 was released on the 10 March 2008. The DVD features minor episode edits.
| Waterloo Road: The Complete Series One | ||||
| Set Details | Special Features | |||
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No Extras |
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| Release Dates | ||||
 United Kingdom |
 Australia |
 United States |
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| 26 March 2007 | ||||
| Waterloo Road: The Complete Series Two | ||||
| Set Details | Special Features | |||
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| Release Dates | ||||
| United Kingdom |
Australia |
United States |
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| 10 March 2008 | ||||
[edit] References
- ^ "[...] the Rochdale branch of Aspinall Incorporated?" - Grantly, 2x03
- ^ Information. Official Waterloo Road Website.
- ^ Waterloo Road re-commissioned (2006-04-03).
- ^ BBC - Waterloo Road - home.
- ^ Radio Times - TV Listings Grid - Thursday 18th January. Radio Times.
- ^ Waterloo Road returns for a second term on BBC ONE in January 2007. BBC Press Office (2006-10-19).
- ^ A Third Series for Autumn 2007. Shed Productions.
- ^ 'Ashes', 'Waterloo' triumph for BBC One. Digital Spy.
- ^ Market News
- ^ http://www.waterlooroadtv.co.uk/interviews/chrisgeere.php Waterloo Road Fans
[edit] External links
- Waterloo Road Official Site
- Waterloo Road at bbc.co.uk
- Waterloo Road at Shed Media
- Waterloo Road at the Internet Movie Database
- Waterloo Road at TV.com
- Waterloo Road Discussion Forum
- Shed Productions Fansite With Waterloo Road Content
- Waterloo Road Fansite with Discussion Forum
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