Ackley Bridge is an edgier version of Waterloo Road

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Ackley Bridge is an edgier version of Waterloo Road

June 11, 2017 - 13:52
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Channel 4’s new school-based family drama explores the rifts and ructions that are created when two local, but very different schools, merge to form a new college. Diversity is the modus operandi of Ackley Bridge, but as a predominantly white community merges with another that is 99% Asian, the transition is going to be anything but smooth.

Ackley Bridge

By Matthew Gormley @MatthewPGormley

Channel 4’s new school-based family drama explores the rifts and ructions that are created when two local, but very different schools, merge to form a new college. Diversity is the modus operandi of Ackley Bridge, but as a predominantly white community merges with another that is 99% Asian, the transition is going to be anything but smooth.

Jo Joyner stars as Miss Carter, the no-nonsense head teacher of this dynamic, new academy that aims to break down the invisible wall. As she preaches about the importance of inclusion from the stage of the assembly hall in the opening scene, it’s immediately reminiscent of Waterloo Road, the BBC’s never-ending school drama. As we meet the pupils, we immediately gain the impression that it’s trying to be more edgy.

We’re introduced to best friends Missy Booth and Nasreen Kausar Hussain (Poppy Lee Friar and Razia Paracha, respectively) as they’re sat in a skip in the middle of a run-down housing estate, quoting Albert Einstein. They’re excited to be attending the same school for the first time. Sadly, from the moment they set foot through the school gates, it’s obvious that their friendship will be hard to sustain. To the white kids, the Asians are stuck up and pretentious. To the Asians, many of the white females are loud, brash and promiscuous.

The boys are no better. Tom Varey plays the new, young PE teacher Will Simpson. Naively, during his first class, he lets them pick their own football teams. There are no decisions to be made, as skin colour is the only factor involved.

A school drama wouldn’t be complete without a stand-out troublemaker, but at Ackley Bridge, Jordan Wilson (Sam Bottomley) is much more than a resident class clown. He’s openly and proudly racist. He doesn’t intend to integrate, introducing himself as Abdullah bin Kevin and declaring he’s a revert. He may be racist, but he doesn’t know any different. Having been plucked from a council estate where there’s no diversity and no desire to better oneself, ignorance has simply bred ignorance. He’s intimidated by the thought of anything other than what he knows, and resents the fact that his ‘race’ is being looked down upon by the new arrivals. In fact, the two groups are more similar than he cares to admit: ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re white or Asian, there’s no jobs for us, we’re all going nowhere...we’re the immigrants, the benefit scroungers’, he rants as he hijacks the school’s Hi-De-Hi-esque Tannoy system. ‘If you’re white, you’re racist. If you’re Asian, you don’t belong.’ Unfortunately, he has a point. I wouldn’t mind predicting that, ultimately, it will be the offensive Jordan Wilson who ends up uniting the two communities.

The racial division is what makes Ackley Bridge different. In today’s world, it’s brave to portray it with such realism. Without it, it’s simply a Waterloo Road revival. The teacher’s personal lives have an alarming propensity to spill onto the school premises and before long they’re the talk of the sixth form common room. Mr Bell (Paul Nicholls) who, unimaginatively yet unsurprisingly, has ‘-end’ affixed to his surname by the pupils, is Miss Carter’s other half. He’s convinced she’s having it off with the school sponsor, who, much like Daniela Denby-Ashe’s character in Waterloo Road, has a much bigger role in the day-to-day running of the school than he should. He’ll soon learn the age-old lesson about not allowing business and pleasure to mix, especially not in front of the school’s most notorious troublemaker. When Wilson taunts him about his private life, he lamps him one. It may have been deserved, but he is a teacher, and Wilson will undoubtedly take him to the cleaners. His derogatory nickname may prove to be appropriate.

Miss Keane, having spent the summer backpacking thinking she’s still a student, breezes into school on the first day of term wearing flip flops with her legs only half shaved. Supposedly an English teacher, she’s more interested in trying to befriend the teens, promising they can bin any of the classic novels which aren’t to their taste. The weakest teacher in the school, she can barely keep her own daughter under control, let alone a class caught up in the middle of the biggest gang rivalry since the Montagues and the Capulets. Think an over-exaggerated hippy version of Waterloo Road’s Steph Haydock and you’re there.

There’s another 21st century issue that plays a major role in Ackley Bridge: social media. Miss Keane’s daughter Chloe is determined to exact revenge on her mum for not really giving a damn about her, so she tweets a topless photograph of her on the beach, with the tagline #AckleyBridgeCollege. The kids, as you can imagine, have a field day. A few years ago, it may have seem far-fetched. In 2017, it’s an everyday occurrence.

Overall, Ackley Bridge shows promise. It’s an edgier version of Waterloo Road that isn’t afraid to deal with real taboo subjects. It’s Channel 4’s first drama in a 8.00pm slot since Brookside finished back in 2003, and it will no doubt prove to be controversial. To remain edgy, it needs to keep its focus on the racial divisions and trying to resolve them, rather than the family crisis storylines that risk turning it into a soap opera.

Ackley Bridge continues on Wednesday at 8.00 pm on Channel 4.