Ackley Bridge
Following the success of documentary series Educating Yorkshire and Educating Essex, Channel 4 has commissioned this school drama, set in the eponymous fictional Yorkshire town.
The series opens on the first day of term at Ackley Bridge College, a new school formed after a merger between two comprehensives, one where the school roll was predominantly white and the other predominantly Asian.
The set up offers plenty of dramatic possibility as lives and cultures collide in both the staff room and classroom. Issues tackled during the six-parter include racism, bullying, poverty, sexuality and violence (though the opening episode with a storyline about a hoax bomb has been re-edited following the Manchester attack). Created by playwright and screenwriter Ayub Khan Din (East is East) along with Kevin Erlis and Malcolm Campbell (both writers on Shameless) this has bags of potential to become a long-running drama. The excellent cast include Jo Joyner, Paul Nicholls, Arsher Ali, Liz White, Sunetra Sarker and Adil Ray.
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