Waterloo Road being revived by BBC One after six years

BBC One is reviving TV drama Waterloo Road after six years. The show, set in a high school, will focus on the challenges faced by teachers, parents and students during the coronavirus pandemic.

Filming of series 11 will take place in Greater Manchester. It is confirmed as the new long-running drama series from the north of England that BBC director general Tim Davie promised in March. The programme’s executive producer, Cameron Roach, is also returning to work on the show.

Piers Wenger, director of BBC Drama, thinks that Waterloo Road is “perfect” for exploring a post Covid Britain. This is because it comes from the perspective of young people in education, who were among those most affected.

He is “thrilled” to return to “this brilliant format, its thrills and spills, unmissable characters and high drama, at a time when audiences across Britain need it most”.

What is the show about?

The drama originally aired on BBC One, and later BBC Three, from 2006-2015. It followed life in schools in Rochdale, for the first seven seasons, followed by Greenock in the rest.

The show helped launch the careers of a number of young British actors and actresses. This includes Bridgerton stars Phoebe Dynevor and Rege-Jean Page and, as well as Adam Thomas who later went on to star in Emmerdale.

Despite it absence from our screens, the show has a newfound popularity. In 2019, the boxset of all previous 10 series released on BBC iPlayer, finding itself a new audience. According to the broadcaster, the programme is particularly popular among younger and more diverse viewers.

As part of its pledge to move more of its production outside of London, the BBC is due to soon reveal another new drama series coming from the devolved nations (Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales).

Can Waterloo Road really be classed as a new show?

However, some TV critics take aim at Waterloo Road being labelled as a new show from the North.

Jim Waterson from The Guardian questions this as the promised ‘new long-running drama series’ set in the north of England that Holby City was axed to fund. The BBC announced in June that they would end the medical show which ran for 23 years, to create new opportunities elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Nick Walker, creator of the Daytime Snaps Twitter account also joked about the news. “Meet the new BBC Northern continuing drama. Same as the old BBC Northern continuing drama”, he says.

TV critic Scott Bryan commented how Waterloo Road previously moved to Glasgow before getting the chop.

However, executive producer Roach is “thrilled” to “re-ignite the iconic brand”. He is excited to bring the “vital and urgent stories” to a new generation of fans. The issues playing out in schools all over the UK are “incredible and emotionally powerful themes”

While actor Shane O’Meara, who played Connor Mulgrew, thinks it is “great news hearing Waterloo Road is making a return”. He enjoyed his years on the show, saying the “platform it gives young actors is rarely matched in British television!”

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