Television viewers have said Channel 4′s new school drama Ackley Bridge is just “a budget version of Waterloo Road”.
The drama depicting the merging of two segregated schools – one predominantly white, one predominantly Asian – debuted on Wednesday night.
Well, this looks like a bit of a dump. #AckleyBridge @PoppyLFx pic.twitter.com/jM6GZTdrCf
— Channel 4 (@Channel4) June 7, 2017
But viewers were largely unimpressed, declaring that it was a poor imitation of the award-winning BBC series Waterloo Road, which wrapped in 2015.
So basically it's the Poundshop version of Waterloo Road #AckleyBridge
— Zoe{SJ}??????????? (@ZoeMitchell0708) June 7, 2017
“So far this is like a budget version of waterloo road,” said another, while one disgruntled viewer deemed it “cheap and weird”.
#AckleyBridge scriptwriter is the easiest job in the world, just sift through the bins at the Waterloo Road studios
— Matt Stephens (@Run_Bike_Matt) June 7, 2017
Others said the series was only different in that it had a race issue thrown in.
Waterloo Road but with race wars #AckleyBridge
— James Robertshaw ?? (@JammyBantam) June 7, 2017
1st ad break of #ackleybridge and i do think its a waterloo road copy just with my racism and tensions . but it got Adil Ray so thats good
— Karthic Sinnadurai (@karthic180) June 7, 2017
The series, set in the fictional Yorkshire mill town of Ackley Bridge, features several television newcomers as well as established stars such as Jo Joyner and Sunetra Sarker.But it was former EastEnders actor Paul Nicholls who proved to be one of the high points for viewers.
Watching #AckleyBridge just so I can perv on my teenage crush Paul Nicholls
— Michelle (@MishKoff7) June 7, 2017
Paul Nicholls makes this worth watching?????? #AckleyBridge
— becky (@beckyy_hall_xo) June 7, 2017
One even said that having Paul in the cast gave Ackley Bridge the edge: “Waterloo road didn’t have Paul Nicholls though did it? #AckleyBridge for the win!!!”