Clash of cultures in the classroom
Ackley Bridge depicts the challenges faced when two schools – one mainly white, one mainly Asian – merge. JEANANNE CRAIG meets the cast and crew to find out what’s in store, from playground fights to marital strife
THE makers of new Channel 4 show Ackley Bridge were keen for it to be as believable as possible. So, instead of shipping in busloads of drama students to make up the numbers in the Yorkshire-based school drama, they handpicked as many of the supporting cast as possible from local classrooms and boxing clubs.
As well as appearing alongside established stars such as Jo Joyner and Sunetra Sarker, local children also did work experience behind the scenes on the shoot, which took place in a disused school in Halifax.
“In TV and film, people often parachute in, call in loads of people from agencies, tell everybody on the street to shut up and stay out of the way, and then leave again. We were really determined that we weren’t going to do that,” says director Penny Woolcock.
“Not only is it the right ethos, but it actually makes it better, because these are real kids and when they laugh at stuff, they’re really laughing. It’s something you can’t buy.”
The drama depicts the merging of two schools – one predominantly white, one predominantly Asian – in the fictional mill town of Ackley Bridge.
While Penny was keen to depict the Muslim community without resorting to stereotypes or extremes (“We’re not avoiding difficult things, there are cultural differences, but our common humanity is what unites us”), frictions are there from the outset at the newly-formed academy.
However, episode one, during which a troublesome student straps a fake bomb to himself to cause disruption during an assembly, had to be re-edited in the wake of the tragic events in Manchester.
Tension is also present in the home lives of some of the pupils and staff who attend it, including headmistress Mandy Carter, played by Jo.
The former EastEnders star was keen to ensure the drama accurately depicted life for young people in this part of England.
“After a preview screening I did ask some of the younger lads, ‘Is this patronising and written by a load of middle-class white people, or is it OK?’ And they said, ‘No, it’s totally on the mark’, which I was really relieved about,” she admits.
As the series progresses, we’ll see career-driven Mandy’s marriage to PE teacher Steve (played by fellow ex-EastEnder Paul Nicholls) falter as she grows closer to local
businessman and school sponsor Sadiq (Citizen Khan’s Adil Ray). “She has worked so hard to get to the point where she is, and lead this new academy, and to please all the sponsors and work with all these business people, that she has neglected her home life,” Jo says. “She’s very organised, very driven, but she’s not at all in control of her home life and relationship.” Prior to playing the lead in BBC comedy Citizen Khan, Adil’s background was in presenting. Ackley Bridge is his first dramatic role, and his first day on-set was something of a rude awakening.
“Playing Citizen Khan, you can hide behind the beard to a certain extent, and it’s a studio comedy, so you play as big as you possibly can,” he explains.
“My first scene on this show was in a bar – I had three words, and a kiss with Jo Joyner, who I’d watched for years in EastEnders...”
Sunetra, another of Jo’s former co-stars, (she appeared alongside her in nursing comedy-drama No Angels), plays Kaneez, a dinner lady whose daughter Nazreen (Amy-Leigh Hickman) attends the school.
“Often we depict Asian women as being either lovely women, or the other extreme is they’re quite militant, and this was such a fine balance of a true woman who lives in the cobbled streets of Yorkshire. She’s integrated herself,” the former Casualty actress and Strictly star says.
“She’s got personality, substance and humour. We just don’t see that enough on television.”
The local kids gave Liverpudlian Sunetra some pointers to perfect Kaneez’s “neither this nor that” accent.
“Because I’m not from the area and I’m not Pakistani and I don’t speak Punjabi, they were so eager to make me feel comfortable, they would help me adjust it a bit.”
Her on-screen daughter Amy-Leigh, 19, found donning a school uniform again a surreal experience.
“When we did our first couple of scenes in our uniform, we put it on and thought, ‘Oh my god’; it makes you feel so strange.
“And walking around the corridors of what was a real school, we were around real schoolkids. It helps with the performance.”
In episode one, Nazreen and her best friend Missy (Poppy Lee Friar) have a falling-out, as personality and culture clashes in the school test their relationship. A playground scrap ensues.
“We said to each other beforehand, ‘let’s really go for it’, and then after every take, as soon as they said ‘cut’, we just hugged each other really tight. We got so into it,” Amy-Leigh recalls.
While director Penny notes that “most of these merged schools in reality have not succeeded”, she hopes Ackley Bridge can offer an alternative ending.
“Sometimes art can show you how things can be, rather than simply how they are.”