Waterloo Road (TV series) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Waterloo Road
Title card (2023–present)
Genre	School drama
Created by	Ann McManus Maureen Chadwick
Starring	Full cast
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	12
No. of episodes	214 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	John Yorke (series 1) Anne Mensah (series 1–3) Kathryn Mitchell (series 1) Brian Park (series 1–4, 9–10) Ann Harrison-Baxter (series 2) Spencer Campbell (series 3–4) Gaynor Holmes (series 4–8, 10–present) Ann McManus (series 4–6) Sharon Hughff (series 5–7) Sarah Brandist (series 6–7) Lis Steele (series 6) Claire Ingham (series 7) Cameron Roach (series 7–8, 11–) Claire Mundell (series 9) Johann Knobel (series 10) John Griffin (series 10) Jo McClellan (series 11–)
Production location(s)	Greater Manchester, England (series 1–7, 11–) Greenock, Scotland (series 8–10)
Running time	58–87 minutes
Production company(s)	Shed Productions (series 1–10) BBC Scotland (series 8–10) Wall to Wall (series 11–) Rope Ladder Fiction (series 11–)
Release
Original network	BBC One (2006–2014, 2023–present) BBC Three (2015)
Picture format	DVB-T 576i 16:9 (2006–2009) HDTV 1080i (2009–2015)
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	Original series: 9 March 2006 (2006-03-09) – 9 March 2015 (2015-03-09) Revival series: 3 January 2023 (2023-01-03) – present (present)

Waterloo Road is a British television drama series set in a comprehensive school of the same name, first broadcast on BBC One on 9 March 2006, concluding its original run on 9 March 2015, exactly nine years after the broadcast of the first episode.

In September 2021, the show was recommissioned for an eleventh series, with production returning to the Greater Manchester area. At the end of the twelfth series' final episode it was announced that the BBC had renewed the show for two more seasons confirming that the show would be returning for a thirteenth and fourteenth series.

Premise

Waterloo Road is set in a failing comprehensive school of the same name and focuses on the professional and personal lives of the students and staff.

Ann McManus, the show's cocreator, devised the series in response to the BBC requesting a drama pertinent to "ordinary people in Britain today". She used the programme to explore many topical issues that occur within Britain, applying them to an educational setting.

Production

Development

The original setting for the series was the former Hill Top Community Primary School in Kirkholt, Rochdale

The first series of Waterloo Road contained eight episodes and was first broadcast from 9 March to 27 April 2006 on BBC One. The show was renewed for a second series that was twelve episodes long, airing from 18 January to 26 April 2007. Series 3 to 6 each contained twenty episodes. The third series aired between 11 October 2007 and 13 March 2008, and the fourth series between 7 January and 20 May 2009. Series 5 was the first to be recorded in HD, and began airing on Wednesday 28 October 2009 (the previous Sunday for BBC One Scotland). The final episode aired on 15 July 2010.

The show was filmed and set in the English town of Rochdale from Series One until the end of Series Seven, and the Scottish town of Greenock from the beginning of Series Eight until the end of its original run. The first episode was broadcast on BBC One on 9 March 2006, and the final episode of the original run was broadcast on BBC Three on 9 March 2015. In 2023, the show returned for Series Eleven and was once again set in Greater Manchester. The revival series contains a new cast, with the exception of some characters who have returned. The first episode of the revival series aired on BBC One on 3 January 2023, with all of the series' episodes being released on BBC iPlayer on the same day.

Production was meant to move locations in 2009, with storylines in the fourth and fifth series designed to coincide with that move. However, these plans did not go ahead, so the show remained in Rochdale until series 7. The filming of the fifth and sixth series was back-to-back, from 2009 to 2010. The sixth series ran from 1 September 2010 to 6 April 2011.

From Series 8 to 10 the setting was the former Greenock Academy, on Madeira Street, Greenock.

The seventh series began airing on 4 May 2011 and ended on 25 April 2012. The series lasted for 30 episodes. As part of a BBC initiative to produce more shows out of England, in August 2011 the show was commissioned for fifty episodes, constituting the eighth and ninth series, in a new location in Greenock, Scotland. The Rochdale site was demolished shortly after filming ended in 2011 and is now a housing estate. For most of the eighth series, the school was a non-fee charging independent school, as opposed to a comprehensive school as it was for the first seven series. The eighth series, again 30 episodes long, started on 23 August 2012 and concluded on 4 July 2013. Starting on 5 September the same year, the ninth series ran until 12 March 2014.

Casting

The show utilises an ensemble cast led by the school's staff members. The longest-running cast members were Philip Martin Brown (Grantly Budgen, series 1–9), Jason Done (Tom Clarkson, series 1–8) and Chelsee Healey (Janeece Bryant, series 1–4 and 6–8, 11).

The original teaching characters consisted of Headteacher Jack Rimmer (Jason Merrells); Deputy Headteacher Andrew Treneman (Jamie Glover); Art teacher and Head of Pastoral Care Kim Campbell (Angela Griffin); Head of English Grantly Budgen (Philip Martin Brown); English teachers Lorna Dickey (Camilla Power) and Tom Clarkson (Jason Done); Head of French Steph Haydock (Denise Welch); and Head of Drama Izzie Redpath (Jill Halfpenny). The student characters included Donte Charles (Adam Thomas), Chlo Grainger (Katie Griffiths), Janeece Bryant (Chelsee Healey), Yasmin Deardon (Rhea Bailey), Mika Grainger (Lauren Drummond) and Lewis Seddon (Craig Fitzpatrick).

Episodes

The final episode of series 3 attracted 6 million viewers. The final episode of series 4 and 5 each attracted 4.5 million viewers.

The finale of series 10 aired on 9 March 2015, nine years after the first episode aired on 9 March 2006.

Awards and nominations

International broadcasts

See also

In Spanish: Waterloo Road para niños