Series 1

## Overview

Ackley Bridge is a British TV drama series set in a multicultural academy school of the same name, broadcast on Channel 4 from 7 June 2017. The school is set in the fictional Yorkshire mill town of Ackley Bridge. Series 1 ran from the 7th of June, to the 12th of July, 2017.

## Cast

### Main Cast

* Poppy Lee Friar as Missy Booth

* Amy-Leigh Hickman as Nasreen Paracha
* Jo Joyner as Mandy Carter
* Paul Nicholls as Steve Bell

* Sunetra Sarker as Kaneez Paracha
* Adil Ray as Sadiq Nawaz
* Sam Bottomley as Jordan Wilson

* Nazmeen Kausar Hussain as Razia Paracha
* Cody Ryan as Hayley Booth
* Liz White as Emma Keane

* Tom Varey as Will Simpson
* Sam Retford as Cory Wilson
* Nohail Mohammed as Riz Nawaz
* Maariah Hussain as Alya Nawaz
* Arsher Ali as Samir Qureshi
* Lorraine Cheshire as Lorraine Bird
* Fern Deacon as Chloe Voyle
* Anneika Rose as Lila Shariff
* Esa Ashraf as Saleem Paracha
* Samantha Power as Simone Booth

## Episodes

Series 1 began broadcasting on the 7th of June, 2017. It consisted of six fifty-minute episodes, spanning out between June and July. The series drew in over 12.96 million UK viewers.

## Production + Casting

Channel 4 announced the casting for new school drama, The ABC, in early 2017. Production and filming on the series began in February 2017 in Halifax, West Yorkshire with the former St Catherine's Catholic High School used as Ackley Bridge College.

The cast, main and supporting, are a mix of experienced and trained actors, as well as street cast actors.

Former EastEnders actors Jo Joyner and Paul Nicholls received the parts of married couple Mandy Carter, the headteacher of Ackley Bridge College and Steve Bell, a PE teacher. Amy-Leigh Hickman, best known for playing Carmen Howle in Tracy Beaker Returns and The Dumping Ground, plays Nasreen Paracha who she describes as a "quieter and tamer" student, as well as "intelligent", but "ballsy." Hickman said she felt comfortable acting scenes with Poppy Lee Friar, who plays best friend Missy, due to having a friendship in real life.

Maariah Hussain and Sam Bottomley, both students at Yorkshire School of Acting in Bradford, were cast as Alya Nawaz and Jordan Wilson respectively. Maariah describes her character Alya as "super intelligent, fiercely righteous, and a bit of a mean girl", who is also "insecure as any teenage girl" but "has ambitions to run her own business, like her father, but struggles to make him see she's capable of it." Sam's character Jordan is billed as "badly behaved and not fazed by getting into trouble", however "he's bright and a talented artist, but thinks school is pointless.

## Reception

Since being announced, Ackley Bridge had been compared to a number of other school based drama shows, namely BBC's long running drama Waterloo Road and another BBC drama, Grange Hill.

The show, since airing, has been both criticised and praised for it's raw scenes that tackle controversial issues such as domestic abuse, sexuality, racial tensions and the general divide between two different ethnic communities as well as airing more soapy plots such as love triangles, clashes between friends and infidelity.

Averaging 2.15 million viewers an episode, Ackley Bridge received so much amazing reception from viewers and critics that the series was renewed for a second season before the first had finished airing. The second series was given double the amount of episodes.

Sam Wollaston from The Daily Telegraph added that the show raised questions "about whether total integration is possible, even necessary, both in school and out of school. That side of things is handled carefully and sensitively. Real issues aren’t avoided, cultural differences aren’t denied; at the same time, obvious and boring stereotypes are avoided. If that makes it sound worthy, it really isn’t. It’s pleasingly loud and mischievous. Well, it’s school, of course it is. As well as boobs, Ackley Bridge has balls. And a heart."