Jashandeep Singh
The filming of the 14th season of BBC’s ‘Waterloo Road’ is set to begin in Manchester, England, in September. The drama series follows the lives of students, teachers, and staff members of a bustling comprehensive school. Tackling social, personal, and educational issues, the series delves into relationships, struggles, and triumphs within the school community. The season will be shot along with the fifteenth round after BBC renewed the show for two more installments.
The shoot for the new season is going to take place in Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in the Greater Manchester county. The first seven seasons of the show were also filmed in Greater Manchester, and so were the revival seasons 11 to 13. The school scenes that feature in the revival seasons were mainly shot in the former St. Ambrose Barlow Roman Catholic High School in Swinton. Manchester has earlier facilitated the filming of several projects including ‘World on Fire,’ ‘Shameless,’ ‘Captain America: The First Avenger,’ ‘Sherlock Holmes,’ ‘Coronation Street,’ ‘Life on Mars,’ and ‘Scott & Bailey.’
Lindsay Williams (‘Jamie Johnson’) serves as the season producer, along with producers Adam Leatherland (‘The Rising’) and Nasreen Ahmed (‘Silver Street’). Si Wall (‘The Dinner Party’) serves as the story producer as well. The show is produced by Wall to Wall North in collaboration with Rope Ladder Fiction. The executive producers include Cameron Roach for Rope Ladder Fiction, Leanne Klein for Wall To Wall, and Gaynor Holmes and Jo McClellan for BBC.
The series stars Angela Griffin (‘Choose or Die’) as headteacher Kim Campbell, Vincent Jerome (‘Transformers: The Last Knight’) as Lindon King, Adam Thomas (‘Pitching In’) as Donte Charles, James Baxter (‘Still Open All Hours’) as Joe Casey, Jo Coffey (‘The Witcher: Blood Origin’) as Wendy Whitwell, and Neil Fitzmaurice (‘Semi-Detached’) as Neil Guthrie. The cast also includes Rachel Leskovac as Coral Walker, Kym Marsh as Nicky Walters, Katherine Pearce as Amy Spratt, Shauna Shim as Valerie Chambers, and Ryan Clayton as Mike Rutherford. The cast is expected to return, along with the addition of some new members as pupils.
Originally created by ‘Bad Girls’ creators Ann McManus and Maureen Chadwick, ‘Waterloo Road’ had its initial run of 10 seasons on BBC from 2006 to 2015. In 2021, the network recommissioned the series for three more seasons, owing to its success on the on-demand platform BBC iPlayer. The show returned with its 11th season after a hiatus of almost eight years in January 2023. In August 2023, BBC announced the renewal of the series for two more seasons. The 13th season is all set to premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in early 2024.
In a statement to BBC, Cameron Roach expressed his excitement about the renewal of the show. “We’re beyond thrilled with the triumphant return of Waterloo Road, and so thankful to the BBC for committing to the show so fully. We love that the show has the potential not only to be a crown jewel for BBC iPlayer, but also serve as a true beacon for training, and inspiring next-generation talent. In addition to our open auditions and full-time production trainee placements for industry newcomers, our workshops across Greater Manchester this Summer for 14-16-year-olds, in partnership with BBC Young Reporter, have truly demonstrated the infectious power of this show,” said the executive producer.
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