Waterloo Road is a show I've been watching since the beginning in 2006. It was about a troubled school where students were beating the living crud out of each other and the teachers struggling to cope with the students, and their own personal matters. Now In my opinion the Series 1-4 were the shows best years, it showed the school progress from a school in special measures with a beat up everyday, to a school that went out of its way for its pupils to have a better life at school, and in general.Series 5 was decent, but then on-wards the show seemed to take a very different turn. At first it was a pretty dark drama that I would really only suggest to parents and teenagers but it went from that to a lighthearted family show, at least that what it feels like to me. For example, in the first few series, there were more fights, more deaths, more arguments and most importantly, more drama, now conflicts get resolved in the space of an episode and the pacing just seems really off. The show went from 8 episodes in Series 1 to 12 in Series 2 to the standard 20 Series 3 on-wards, and these series felt very well paced with a overarching story line coming to a big climax at the end of the series, you just don't get that with Series 5 on-wards, in fact I had to look up when a series had finished because the finale's after Series 5 just felt like normal episodes. The pacing and different direction also might be in part to all the different writers, as the original writers and creators of the show stopped writing halfway through Series 3 I believe. Its still good TV, and with the series ending next year after its 10th series, its a good time to go back and re-watch the earlier series and see how the show has changed,its just a shame to see something once to relate-able become so different.

I like the BBC, a lot of my favorite shows over the years have been broadcast on BBC America. One of my favorite aspects of BBC productions (At least those broadcast here in the U.S.) is a series season is short, and rarely does a show outlive it's time, lingering on because the characters have become a part of our routine.Another aspect I enjoy is the character development. With such short seasons, the pace of shows are generally much quicker and the characters fleshed out early on. However, in the case of Waterloo Road, I fear there is little direction as to what the show is about, who the characters are, and surprisingly the staff appears to be more dysfunctional then the student's. This isn't meant as a criticism of the actors, but rather of the writing and concept of the show. Were it not airing during the bleakness of U.S. summer reruns and never ending "reality shows" I'd have probably quit watching some time ago. However, unlike great BBC shows like SPOOKS *MI5) or many of the "Mystery Monday" line up like Wire in the Blood, or Night Detective, which require my attention, Waterloo Road allows me to serve the internet, check google news, or play spider solitaire while it plays in the background.The situations of the kids, are their moronic thought processes are easily waived off, as let's face it, kids always think they are much more clever then they really are. (I know I knew more at that age then I know now)Part of adolescents is learning just how much we still have to learn.The teachers however are another story. One would expect they would have outgrown both their hormonal imbalances and emotional insecurity. The old adage about "not dipping your quill into the company inkwell" seems to have been a missing component of their education. Having your own kids in the school you teach certainly doesn't seem to be a very good idea.The silliness and absurdity far outweighs the occasional dramatic moment or insightful instance which stumbles off the tepid script.

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!!

Difficult to say whether this series set in an under-achieving inner-city comprehensive is meant to be a comedy, a drama or a comedy-drama as there are elements of all three. Jamie Glover as Andrew plays the ex fee-paying school English teacher who comes to Waterloo Road as Deputy Head and initially he's coming over as a cold fish though with indications that he will develop into the saviour of the school. Ex Coronation Street actress Angela Griffin is the pick of the bunch as the very human and humane humanities teacher and in fact the show seems to be a haven for ex-Corry actresses with Jill Halfpenny, Denise Welch and Judith Barker (the second Mrs Ken Barlow) joining Ms Griffin and I see from IMDb that Chloe Newsome will soon make it 5 unless she was in the first episode and I missed her.This kind of drama is really done much better by US producers these days though enough was going on for me to tune in and see how it progresses.