‘The public told us we didn’t show enough sex with the teachers’: How we made Waterloo Road | culture

Cameron Roachexecutive producer

I was working on the women’s prison drama Bad Girls when the idea for Waterloo Road came up. Bad Girls creators Maureen Chadwick and Anne McManus had a strong belief in social justice and conducted meticulous research. These are often the foundations of successful serial drama. Anne had once taught at a Glasgow comprehensive and was passionate about education: she believed we excluded young people too easily. This became the basis of the Waterloo Road.

You can’t do a British school show and not be influenced by Grange Hill. But these were not children’s programmes, they were in prime time. High school dramas are enduring because they represent the ultimate shared experience. There is a Waterloo Road in most UK cities, so the address was universal. It also worked with “The Battle of Waterloo Road,” the chaotic first episode. This chaos remains a key element of the show.

It ran for 10 series but became outdated and was axed. Then, during Covid, old series suddenly did huge numbers on iPlayer. I think viewers missed that sense of community, and for a certain demographic, it was bigger than Strictly or Doctor Who during lockdown. The BBC asked me to rerun it, and here I am, seven series and 70 hours of television later.

It is very popular with young and diverse audiences. I think it has to do with people feeling seen and not being cared for. We treat teachers like human beings, and we treat teens like adults. Teachers are grateful that someone is telling the world how hard their jobs are. We do regular Zoom panels with teachers to poll them. They told us recently that we don’t show enough sex between teachers. We have introduced more personnel matters on the back of that.

Television has the power to spark conversations at home. If a character viewers love suddenly develops the pain of endometriosis, they’ll want to know more. Our conspiracy about the plight of young carers has raised questions in Parliament. Derbyshire Police linked our grooming story from their website because it helped highlight warning signs, and our story about coercive control has been featured in schools across the North West. It’s public service broadcasting, but not in an angry way. Issue-focused stuff balanced with humor. Anne always said that every episode should make you laugh and cry.

I went to Los Angeles to visit the set of an amazing show called East Los High, which is set within the Latino community. Despite living in the entertainment capital of the world, the young people couldn’t get jobs in the industry, so they crowdfunded their own show. It became a huge hit and ran for five seasons. That planted a seed in my mind, so we started an initiative called Rope Ladder Fiction to encourage new voices. We have apprentice schemes across all departments and carry out outreach work across Greater Manchester. We often hear that TV and movies are scary environments, but children can come to Waterloo Road with its school setting and feel at ease. It’s the perfect training ground. One of our cast members, Lori Kirkham, was an extra on the show when she was still in school. Now she produces it.

Considering the ups and downs of the show, it’s crazy that it’s been running for 20 years. Since a lot of young people work on the show, we celebrated the anniversary with a concert, which was a lot of fun. When Anne sadly passed away last year, we named one of the characters, Noel McManus, after her. He led the house band and there was a beautiful moment when… [co-creator] Eileen Gallagher came on stage to play the tambourine. I’ve felt festive for the past two decades.

Angela Griffin, actress and director

It always occurred to us that we weren’t shooting Grange Hill: this film may be set in a school but it’s about teachers and pupils alike, and the story is more modern and more mature.

I started out playing Kim Campbell, the art teacher and head of pastoral care. She’s in constant conflict with Andrew Trainman, played by Jimmy Glover, the strict vice president – and naturally, they eventually fall in love. Kim believed that each student was an individual. Its slogan was: “One size does not fit all.” I based it on my old drama teacher.

The show was a huge success, attracting 5 million viewers. I still get recognized most for Coronation Street, which is crazy because I left 25 years ago, but suddenly I was being stopped in the street by teenagers too. She left after five series, but a decade later the shutdown happened and the show found a whole new audience. The renewed love for the show has been crazy. Even my teenage daughters were interested when their friends started saying, “Miss Campbell is your mother!”

I was surprised when Cameron approached me about returning for the reboot with a completely different guise: Kim was the new headteacher, so I visited the schools and did a lot of research. Not only was this a tidier job for her, but the landscape of schools changed post-Covid. Returning to see a new generation of students gave me goosebumps.

What Waterloo Road does for the north of England, for working-class actors and up-and-coming crews, is huge. It’s a breeding ground for talent outside of London. Great names have come through its doors – Jodie Comer, Jenna Coleman, Phoebe Dynevor, Holiday Grainger – and I feel like they are all my children! Filming isn’t as messy as you might think because it’s a tight ship. I’ve seen worse behavior on adult shows.

It addresses the issues in an accessible way. I have received handwritten letters from viewers who were deeply moved by the episodes. Stories of bullying tend to resonate and people feel like Kim was their pastoral care teacher too. I identified powerfully with Kelly Jo, who grapples with her mixed-race identity. I felt lucky to be able to direct that story and be a part of it. It was a huge moment for me when Cameron trusted me enough to start directing. It completely changed my life and career. As a working-class woman of color in the North, I am the last person usually found behind the camera. We hope it shows people what is possible.

In the first series, it might have been physical bullying, drugs and alcohol; 20 years later, it’s cyberbullying, vaping, and bloody energy drinks. The same problems affect young people today as they always have. There will always be room for Waterloo Road.