GCSE Media Studies PPE Preparation

Waterloo Road

1) Watch the whole of Waterloo Road - Season 1, Episode 1:




2) Read this Waterloo Road Wikipedia entry and write down the number of seasons and episodes broadcast and the channels they have appeared on.

The number of Waterloo Road seasons are 10 and 200 episodes. The channels Waterloo Road appeared on were BBC One and BBC Three.

3) How does Waterloo Road meet the key conventions of TV Drama?
Waterloo Road meets the key conventions by using character to represent love and relationships in the episode.They have used setting to represent where the main scene is at.Narrative has been used as the episodes has a storyline to it mainly about making the school better aswell as romance.

4) Write down three storylines (or narratives) from Waterloo Road - note which season the storyline appeared in. They can be from the first episode above or from another season if you wish.
In series one there school was under threat as bad behaviour and bad publicity was increasing. In series 2 the audience learns that Lorna what was protrayed as an attempted suicide at the end of series 1when she jumped into a canal following the collapse of her marriage. Tom and Izzie are expecting their first child together, whilst Lorna is diagnosed with Multiple sclerosis  and her life becomes even more stressful.With Andrew Treneman gone, having accepted a teaching post in Rwanda, Eddie (played by Neil Morrissey) became the deputy head. Rimmer resigned as head teacher in episode 6 due to misuse of the school budget. He was succeeded byRachel Mason. With Kim Campbell travelling to Rwanda with Andrew, she was replaced by Steph Haydock as Head of Pastoral Care. Steph was later replaced by Tom Clarkson in the second half of the series.

5) Why might audiences have enjoyed Waterloo Road?
The reason why the audiences may have enjoyed Waterloo Road was because it was based at a school which will make the younger audiences more interested as well as older audiences which is about relationships and love.