What to watch
CHANNEL 4, 8.00PM
It’s tempting to describe Channel 4’s newest drama as a fictional version of their successful Educating strand. Many of the same themes of that documentary series – inspirational teachers, overlooked children and tensions in the classroom – are present, albeit with extra dramatic spin. Created by Ayub Khandin, writer of hit 1999 film East Is East, Ackley Bridge is Channel 4’s first 8.00pm drama since Brookside, and it’s a very smart move, filling the gap left by BBC One’s popular Waterloo Road, which ended in 2015, while offering something that feels believable, interesting and fresh.
The central plotline revolves around the merger of two schools, one predominantly white and one largely Asian, and draws on real-life cases in Lancashire and Yorkshire to tell a sharp, lively story that doesn’t shy away from depicting the realities of two communities living parallel lives. Paul Nicholls stands out as the school’s likeable but stressed head of PE and Adil Ray has fun as the smooth entrepreneur behind the merger, but the opening episode belongs to Amy-leigh Hickman and Poppy Lee Friar as a pair of best friends who find their relationship challenged by new allegiances. Sarah Hughes