4 O'Clock Club

4 O'Clock Club
Genre	Children's drama Musical comedy Family sitcom
Created by	Paul Rose Ben 'Doc Brown' Smith
Starring	see Cast section
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	52 (13 to be filmed) (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Connal Orton
Running time	27-28 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	CBBC BBC HD
Original run	13 January 2012 (2012-01-13) – present

4 O'Clock Club is a BAFTA-nominated British children's television series, which premiered on 13 January 2012^[1] on CBBC and BBC HD. A second series began airing on 4 January 2013 and the third series premiered on 20 December 2013, with a fourth having been confirmed.^[2] Series 4 began airing on 28 January 2015. A fifth series has been commissioned and will start filming in June 2015.^[3]

Background

ScreenTerrier held auditions for the 4 O'Clock Club in March 2011 and the show was publicly announced the next month.^[4] The first episode aired in January 2012, with the series wrapping up in March of that same year.

It was announced in December 2013 that the third series episodes would premiere on iPlayer seven days before broadcast on television. Victoria Jaye, head of TV content for BBC iPlayer, said: "We're incredibly excited that 4 O'Clock Club will be the first children's series to premiere on BBC iPlayer. As an established comedy drama in the CBBC schedule, the iPlayer premiere will give fans the chance to enjoy their favourite programme whenever and wherever they want to." "Over the last year, we've seen a 63 percent growth in consumption of children's content on iPlayer, which demonstrates iPlayer's important role as a complementary discovery platform for our broadcast programmes." Cheryl Taylor, Controller of CBBC, said: "CBBC is the most watched children's channel in the UK for its respective target audience and we're proud to continue to deliver high-quality programmes in a way that suits our audience." "Viewers are in for a treat with the best series yet of award-winning 4 O'Clock Club as we welcome Josh and friends back for more melodious mischief."^[5]

Plot

The first series centres on Josh Carter (Khalil Madovi), a pupil at Elmsbury High, and his older brother Nathan (Doc Brown), who works as a teacher there. Josh is portrayed as a laid-back teenage schoolboy trying to maintain his cool reputation, while also being rebellious and trying to cause trouble in order to achieve his goals and humiliate or outsmart Nathan. Nathan, former Elmsbury High student and famous rapper, soon learns that only he will able to stop Josh from his schemes.

In the second series, Nathan leaves Elmsbury and new music teacher Dexter Harris (Jason Callender) joins the school. Dexter becomes Josh and his mother's new lodger, taking Josh's room as a result. As such, Josh antagonizes Dexter through much of the series, until he finally accepts his presence and labels him as an "honorary Carter brother". The series also featured Crispin Bell (Simon Lowe) as the new headmaster, who replaces Byron, and proved to be far stricter than Byron. Mr Thorne was a brutal enemy of Josh and Dexter for the remainder of the series.

The third series featured Nathan's proposal and marriage to Melanie Poppy (Laura Aikman), who both departed the series, and Josh is forced to share his room with his annoying younger cousin, Nero (Akai Osei). When the school burns down due to an issue with candles, Elmsbury is merged with another school, Fowlmere, renaming the school Elmsmere as of the fourth episode of the third series. After the series, Nero and his gang, Isaac (who was still a pupil), Ash, Mr Nunn and Mr Harris all starred in Mr Bell's own Elmsmere documentary show, known as 4 O'Clock Files.

The fourth series features Nero, now in the main role, and his crew have replaced Josh and the Elmsbury gang (Ryan and Molly not included), who have all temporarily departed the series (except Issac, who becomes Elmsmere's caretaker) and Dexter is trying to make it as an accomplished teacher, but is given the new job of taking care of Nero's shenanigans, which indirectly resembles Josh and Nathan's relationship in the first series. The series also introduced a new main character, rebellious and cynical tomboy Clem Burton (Jade Alleyne), who joins Nero's crew as well as mysterious spray paintings of Andress appear around Elmsmere, called 'The Phantom Sprayer', however it was later revealed that it was Mr. Bell who was the criminal. This series also features mini cameos from Josh's gang as shown in the series premiere and series finale. Nathan also makes his comeback, midway through the series. He also had a new baby boy, known as Moses Carter, who Nathan accidentally forgets while picking Josh up from the Elmsbury Police Station, where Josh illegally digs for his unknown fathers watch, which Nathan throws away in the allotment.

Cast

Current cast

Former Cast

4 O'Clock Files

4 O'Clock Files is a subseries to the main show. It focuses on Mr Bell filming a documentary with the help of Eleesha and Fleur. He focuses on the school's curriculum, sporting activities and education. He also talks about the history of the school, about how they merged together. The series also features Nero's crew, who wore the old Elmsmere uniform, who talk about the events that happened in series 3. Isaac and Ash made their final appearances in Elmsmere uniform, talking about Josh's mishaps with Rachel, and the fun moments they had in Elmsbury. Mr Harris and Mr Nunn were also caught teasing each other, at the expense of Dexter's end of year reports, whom he did Josh's and Zoe Marie's (who also had been interviewed) reports. Josh had already left for Hillview, but he did return in series 4 (briefly). The series was set at the end of term, with Clem arriving in series 4. It aired on a 5 day run on CBBC from 14th December to 19th December 2014.

Production

The show is filmed in and around Stockport, Greater Manchester. Constructed raps are featured in every episode, usually relating to the current situation. As such, the series takes a musical style. Since the school set on fire in the show, it is now filmed in the former site of St Ambrose Barlow RC High School.

Episodes

Reception

Geoff Ellis of Radio Times said: "Sibling rivalry is the big theme of this new comedy drama about brothers Nathan and Josh who go to the same school. Both of them are expert rappers, but the twist is that Nathan is a teacher and Josh is a pupil. While Josh dreams of making it in the music business, Nathan is determined to have his say and try to stop his young brother from making the same mistakes he did."^[6]

Awards

References

External links

• 4 O'Clock Club at BBC Programmes
• 4 O'Clock Club at the Internet Movie Database