I have only seen the first series, being one of the sad viewers of the sad overseas channel, BBC Prime.
Poor old Jason Merrells is yet again cast as a well-meaning northern male struggling with frustrations mainly caused by the women in his life. The best character in it is Andrew Treneman (very believably played by Jamie Glover). It is good, and rare, to see an idealistic character who is not a cliché and is not ridiculed.
The four young actors playing the teenagers are also excellent.
Camilla Power, once Jill Pole in the BBC Narnia, is a wife cheated on by her husband, just as she was in Sparkhouse. She is beautiful but painfully thin.
It is not remotely realistic (e.g. the school only seems to have about ten staff and, at most, fifty pupils - Grange Hill was better) and the goings on are of the most melodramatic soap opera type, especially the love triangle and the teenage car crash story - neither of which is really dependent on the school setting at all. The way that Merrells is rescued at the last second from a fiery death is the kind of thing normally found in children's stories. Does he then have to spend hours making statements or getting treatment for his injuries? No, he just changes his shirt and heads for the pub!
It's potty, but it is entertaining and has moments that do remind me (a teacher) of life in a British secondary school.
Poor old Jason Merrells is yet again cast as a well-meaning northern male struggling with frustrations mainly caused by the women in his life. The best character in it is Andrew Treneman (very believably played by Jamie Glover). It is good, and rare, to see an idealistic character who is not a cliché and is not ridiculed.
The four young actors playing the teenagers are also excellent.
Camilla Power, once Jill Pole in the BBC Narnia, is a wife cheated on by her husband, just as she was in Sparkhouse. She is beautiful but painfully thin.
It is not remotely realistic (e.g. the school only seems to have about ten staff and, at most, fifty pupils - Grange Hill was better) and the goings on are of the most melodramatic soap opera type, especially the love triangle and the teenage car crash story - neither of which is really dependent on the school setting at all. The way that Merrells is rescued at the last second from a fiery death is the kind of thing normally found in children's stories. Does he then have to spend hours making statements or getting treatment for his injuries? No, he just changes his shirt and heads for the pub!
It's potty, but it is entertaining and has moments that do remind me (a teacher) of life in a British secondary school.