~ School of Destruction ~ (Waterloo Road)

Member Name: blackmagicstar4

Product:	Waterloo Road
Date:	26/02/09 (565 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent plots, Great characters, Good acting

Disadvantages: none

~ WATERLOO ROAD ~

* What is Waterloo Road?

Waterloo Road is a BBC television programme based around a difficult school in Manchester. The school consists of pupils with troubled pasts and disabilities. The series evolves around the staff, pupils and parents and brings up many issues involving bad behaved children, suicidal pupils, teachers having affairs and parents being violent and abusive. In every episode there is a different plot focusing on one or two actors more than the others but it generally focuses on all the main characters included. Each episode is played for an hour without any breaks and there have been four seasons shown so far with a five under way. It was first aired in 2006 showing on Thursday nights and also in Scotland on Sundays. Waterloo is produced by the same company who has produced both Footballer's Wives and Bad Girls.

* Production and Scenes

Created By- Ann McManus and Maureen Chadwick
Production- Shed Productions, BBC
Original Airing- 9 March 2006
No of Series- 4
No of Episodes- 48

The Series is located actually in Rochdale, Greater Manchester at a former Primary School Hill Top Primary. The whole site is now especially used for all the episodes for the series. After researching this location on the net I have found that the site is to be demolished soon and rebuilt so the fifth series will have to find a new location in Manchester.

* Characters

There have been many characters over the four series so I have just names the main ones who are current characters and those who have departed.

Season 4 Main Current Characters-

Teachers
Eva Pope- Rachel Mason (Head Teacher)
Neil Morrissey- Eddie Lawson (Deputy Head)
Jason Done- Tom Clarkson
Denise Welch- Steph Haydock
Elyes Gabel- Rob Cleaver
Phillip Brown- Grantly Budgen
Shabana Bakhsh - Jasmine Koreshi
Chris Gene- Matt Wilding

Pupils
Katie Griffiths- Chlo Grainger
Adam Thomas- Donte Charles
Reece Noi- Earl Kelly
Ellie Paskell- Maxine Barlow
Luke Bailey- Marley Kelly
Thomas Milner- Paul Langley
Tachia Newall- Bolton Smilie
Lucy Dixon- Danielle Harker

The characters change a lot during each season and there are many that have departed and joined throughout the last three years. For more information on this I would check the internet as ill be here all day if I name everyone that has left.

* Favourite Characters

Maxine Barlow

Max is a strong, independent girl who has had a difficult past and is now staying with teacher of French Steph. She has been through it all miscarriage, deceit and bullying and now she seems to have her head up high and doing well at school. All this changes when new student Earl Kelly clasps eyes on her. Maxine wants to grow up to fast and hits a difficult and surprising event in season 4. Max has been in every episode in season 4.

Bolton Smilie

Bolton hasn't been the best of students in the past couple of years but this year he seems to have made progress. New P.E teacher sees a new talent in him and helps him progress toward a new future that keeps him in school. Bolton is humorous, cheeky and gives the season a lift of energy.
He is one of the characters featured in most episodes.

Steph Haydock

Steph has got to be the best Teacher at Waterloo Road. She is funny, witty and speaks her mind. She has had a difficult time to and now looking after teenager max is proven more difficult than she thought. Steph also brings a sense of humour to the series and listening to her fast, witty comments in the programme is brilliant. She is very sarcastic which is my kind of humour and I think she has a great effect.


* Episodes and DVDs

Series One

New Head Teacher Jack Rimmer is welcomed to a new school and staff trying to approach difficult pupils in new ways. There are new love interests and fights amongst the teacher and the pupils and their parents try to understand Jack's new rules and teaching which causes some to rebel.

Series on has eight episodes on three discs. You can buy the box set for £22.99 on Play.com and maybe cheaper from Amazon.

Director- Barnaby Southcombe
Certificate- 12
Year- 2006
Screen- Widescreen 16:9 Anamorphic

* Series Two

As a new term starts things look more positive than last term and the school launches its first sixth form years. This increases the tension in the school and Jack has hard decisions with low budgets and havoc with bullying and truancy.

Series two is cheaper on Play for only £16.99 although it also has 3 discs.
The box set also includes two special features- Miss Haydock reveals all and Mika's video diary.

* Series Three

Autumn- A New Year and the troubles from last term as left Head Teacher Jack slightly unstable. He is determined to improve the school but the increasingly number of bullies and proves it all too hard.

Spring- New Head Teacher Rachel finds it hard to settle in as her past is revealed which causes the pupils to riot. The new hard family The Kelly's start at the school and Earl Kelly proves to be the toughest pupil yet.

Series three is spilt into two terms autumn and spring and both box sets are £14.99 each.

* OPINIONS

I am really addicted to this programme and think it is eventful and interesting. I don't own any of the box sets but I am thinking about buying some before the next series is released which is properly at the end of the year.

~ Narrative

The plots are really well written and each episode grabs my attention. Even though there is a main story in each, there are many sub plots going on with each main character to keep you interested. You really get to know each character and they are quite realistic stories. Being a school with many troublesome children it is amazing to see how teacher cope with the problems without having a lot of authority. The plots include all the downfalls of teenagers today including bullying, harassment and vandalism. There are teenage pregnancies, abortions and everyday disasters that affect the run of the school. I think the best filmed plot to date is a story following character Maxine. It focuses on dramatic events when we find out that she has been a major and traumatising event. It deals with the situation very well and makes you realise how today's world has some cold and cruel circumstances. Seeing some of the young girls experience rape, pregnancy and abortion really made me feel lucky that I didn't have to go through any of them. The stories are really hard hitting and it made me realise what some areas are like. Waterloo road is located in a rough and dangerous area and it shows the different affects on both teachers and pupils. The episodes include everything you need in a drama to hit a wide range audience- romance, devastation and action.

~ Character Development

The best element of the programme is the character development. Each episode does this very well and the progress and down fall of each character makes you feel that you know them very well. The changes in the main characters are very dramatic and we see many of them go through ups and downs rapidly. There are many characters that carry on from the first series which is good to see the changes in them over time. This is properly why I like Steph and Maxine so much as they have been in most of the episodes so I can feel like I know them more than the others. I like the way each episode still includes as many as the main characters as possible even with the main plot under way.

~ The Rest

Waterloo is very well filmed and has a good time structure. As the episodes are an hour it gives plenty of time to set the episode in a few days of the week like a school week. As an episode is played once a week they keep it inline with real time so the next episode is based the week after the last. The timing is realistic and it doesn't rush through the day.
The acting is great there aren't any actors that don't suit their ole and all of the pupils even the younger ones play the parts very well. Some of the plots are very hard as they hit tough issues and I think they act these perfectly. The teachers also play their roles well and they are very believable as teachers.
It's good to see their private lives as well as coping with the teaching in the day. We see in the staff room and at their homes in the evening which is good to see who they rally are and not just the teachers they seem to be toward the children.
The locations of the series are very expandable. Even though most of the school day has to be set at the school there are many other sites it uses to keep it interesting. We see the teachers and pupils at home and also there are school trips and the surrounding Manchester town when some of the pupils skip school. Each episode includes these sets and there is not one episode that is just based in one place which is very good. I particularly like when they film at the homes as we get to see what their home life is like and how it may affect their behaviour in the school day.

~ Recommend

I am totally hooked on the series and haven't missed a single episode yet. It is fun, gritty and shocking and includes everything you need in a real life drama. I feel that it gets better with each series and the third series has just finished airing and gutted I've got to wait ages for the next one. It really gets your emotions going and you feel sympathy for the characters. Everything about it is done well, it has good acting, great development of the characters and excellent story lines, what else can you ask for?

Official Website- www.waterlooroad.co.uk/

Thanks for readin- Blackmagicstar4- Published on Ciao and Dooyoo

Summary: The Toughest school around