Waterloo Road

I absolutely love this programme. As a 15 year girl in year 11, it really appeals to me. But to be honest, its 10 times worse than my school. But i think it is a great school for a city school.

Anyway, its basically about a run down school, were the pupils are really badly behaved, and the teachers cant control them. The head teacher appoints Andrew as the new deputy head teacher. Andrew is a Oxford graduate, and used to teaching private schools, not bad public schools. Andrew tries to bring authority, and eventually it works... and just loads of different things go on... like Dante and Chlo's car crash story line... and the love triangle between the 3 teachers (cant remember there names... Izzy, Lorna and the guy...) Ill be sad to see this end. I hope it comes back for a 2nd series!!

I missed this first time round and have recently gone through most of the series on iPlayer.

It can be gritty and funny in equal measures. I'm sure there there will be a situation that people will be able to personally relate to (good and bad).

If I'm being honest, there are more plot holes than Swiss cheese with teachers and pupils disappearing never to be referenced again in following series, but go along for the ride and you will enjoy it.

The show started off a little slow, but it has improved a lot over the years. It is a gritty and compelling look at pupils and teachers at a comprehensive school and the situations they get into. The series is well filmed, with excellent photography and the school itself looks imposing. The writing is engaging and well written, and the stories are compelling and well structured. And the acting is surprisingly good, not the amateurish sort of acting I have seen but it is good. Denise Welch is excellent as Steph as is Angela Griffin and the students are all quite believable with good chemistry. The music is also good, it does stick in your head and is easy to remember.

Overall, a great show. I have seen a lot of good shows and dramas on BBC and this is luckily one of them. 9/10 Bethany Cox

OK I have been watching Waterloo Road for quite a long time now. Back in the day this is what everyone was watching and I could understand why. It was very entertaining with the characters having their own dedicated episode at times and other factors of school life. But from 2009 to now I don't really know what to make of the programme anymore. The characters have all changed and so had the management. The issues that came up with either too far or unrealistic. And now the programme is quite unrealistic to me. I personally don't understand why they changed so much and involved diar situations like murder, fire and freak accidents that you simply wouldn't see. Also the situations between characters are also verging on either weird or simply cheesy which I simply cannot watch because I am embarrassed for them. Overall Im still watching but I think that it is unfortunate in what is happening with the programme overall now.

I feel that we are not watching the same series. The characters are very interesting and the writing has developed so that there is some level of anticipation to see what will happen next. I think the gap maybe related to how one perceives life in the US vs. life in the UK where the series is set.

In the UK, if you are a teacher it is likely that your kids attend the same school you teach at - yes of course this is not very easy but it does happen regularly. In addition, many people meet at work many have a quick fling, and many get married. These inter-relationships have bee communicated well in the series.

Waterloo Rd is a good enticing drama, that is more about the relationships between people, (peers-to-peers and authority to the masses). Probably a little more appealing to woman than men. Well regardless must be doing wall as the second series has just aired in the UK and I for one can't wait to see whats going to happen.