{"id":413499,"date":"2025-09-10T15:55:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T15:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/413499\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T15:55:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T15:55:14","slug":"waterloo-road-announces-big-change-for-new-series-in-dramatic-first-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/413499\/","title":{"rendered":"Waterloo Road announces big change for new series in dramatic first look"},"content":{"rendered":"

Waterloo Road has confirmed a major change for season 16<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Straying from tradition, the hit drama has scored a new weekly transmission pattern, with not one but two episodes airing back-to-back on BBC One every Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Returning to our screens on 23 September, the series will also be available to stream in full on BBC iPlayer, with all eight episodes landing on the platform at 6am. <\/p>\n

What to Read Next<\/p>\n

As fans head back to school this month, they’ll be introduced to the new media studies teacher, Darius Donovan, played by comedian Jon Richardson<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Confirming that he had signed on in April, Richardson quipped: “I wanted to be a teacher growing up, so hopefully this role will put all those ambitions to bed and I can stop telling my friends and family that I will be testing them on what I’ve been saying or telling audiences on tour that it’s their own time they’re wasting.”<\/p>\n

\"jon<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: <\/strong>Best film and TV tours for 2025<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Alongside Richardson, Waterloo Road has added three more characters to the line-up, with Phoenix Rise’s Fintan Buckard and Coronation Street’s Savannah Kunyo cast as Ben and Hope Drake, the grandchildren of headteacher Dame Stella Drake<\/a> (Lindsey Coulson).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Christine Bottomley, who recently appeared in Sherwood, will play Stella’s daughter, and Ben and Hope’s mum, Sam Drake.<\/p>\n

A brief synopsis teases: “This September, Headteacher Stella is forced to navigate a fresh set of challenges, and this family dynamic will undoubtedly alter her approach on how she manages things, as well as relationships with students and fellow teachers.
<\/p>\n

\"summer<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

“With another tragedy on the horizon, the choices of some of Waterloo Road’s own will have some life-changing consequences.”<\/p>\n

Among the returning cast, fans can expect to see plenty of familiar faces, including Adam Thomas (Donte Charles), Hollie-Jay Bowes (Debs Rafferty), James Baxter (Joe Casey), Jo Coffey (Wendy Whitwell), Kym Marsh<\/a> (Nicky Walters), Aabay Noor Ali (Mollie ‘Mog’ Richardson), Chiamaka ‘ChiChi’ Ulebor (Shola Aku) and Danny Murphy (Luca Smith).<\/p>\n

Season 16 of <\/strong>Waterloo Road<\/strong> will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 23 September. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The new edition of <\/strong>Living Legends<\/strong> is here! <\/strong>Buy Gaga in newsagents or online<\/strong><\/a>, priced at just \u00a38.99.<\/strong>
<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Waterloo Road has confirmed a major change for season 16. Straying from tradition, the hit drama has scored…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[1380,142085,1331,77,1330,142084,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-413499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-content-type-news","9":"tag-contentid-eac2ce28-0e83-4cd6-af24-00dc01476da1","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-locale-gb","13":"tag-shorttitle-waterloo-road-announces-big-change-for-season-16","14":"tag-tv","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115180819564353800","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}