Waterloo Road

Katie Griffiths as Chlo Grainger

Chlo's a bright girl who wants to do well at school but life has been traumatic for her, Mika and Tom, who are all coming to terms with the loss of her mum, Izzie, who was murdered in the school grounds. Although Tom has stepped in as dad, it's her relationship with Donte that has grown and she's determined to marry him, with or without Tom's blessing. Against Tom's wishes, Chlo marries Donte but it's not long before she's questioning her decision to marry him.

Chlo's world is turned upside down when she's unfaithful to Donte.. It's just the start of a dangerous journey leaving a trail of broken hearts.

Lauren Drummond as Mika Grainger

Mika is more fiery and opinionated than her younger sister, Chlo. She's bright and works hard. She's closer to Tom since losing her mum and slowly adjusting to their new life together. She's head over heels with Brett and they start off the new term very much a couple. Although when Mika finds out her sister has slept with Brett her world collapses. She refuses to forgive Chlo. Could this permanently scar their relationship?

Recently, she has been involved in green issues, and has become more active in them, much to the annoyance of Eddie Lawson, Tom and Rachel Mason. Her environmental protests nearly ended in disaster, when Tom fell off a ladder, whilst attempting to bring her down from a tree that she had been trying to protect. She had a heart-to-heart with her surrogate dad, and he agreed to see her and Chlo as young women, rather than school children. The only problem she has now is accepting Davina Shackleton as Tom's girlfriend, as she once had a one night stand with Brett as well as, perhaps out of respect for her mum.




     

Tom Payne as Brett Aspinall

Brett is good looking in an arty, "Franz Ferdinand" way and has a brilliant brain - when he decides to use it. He's spent the last five years being sheltered at the posh school nearby and, determined to get a taste of real life, insisted on coming to Waterloo Road for his A' levels. His background has given him an accent and an attitude that sets him apart from the other pupils and with his easy confidence he's never short of friends and admirers, amongst pupils and teachers alike. Brett's girlfriend is Mika, who he adores, but disaster strikes when he falls for Chlo, Mika's newly wed sister.


Brett now clearly wants to get back with Mika, but he'll have his work cut out!! When Mika thought she was pregnant, Brett's hopes were raised as he thought that having a family would help them get back together, he was quite disappointed when it turned out to be a false alarm.

Subsquently, Brett's hopes were raised once again when he and Mika successfuly pulled off 'Park Side Story' the chemistry was there and he opened up to the idea that perhaps they could give their relationship another try, he was brought back to earth with a nasty thud when she asserted that she was only acting! Even his attempt to get her to write for his school paper was a thinly-veiled attempt to get back with her, which Mika saw through. There appears to be a long way to go before the two of them are reconciled as a couple.

Brett also tried to win her back by protesting with her about the school's plans to cut down the trees for construction work. They climbed a tree together, in front of a fleet of diggers. Brett was less than happy but he did it for Mika.

In recent weeks, they seem to be getting closer and closer but it is unknown whether it will go further than friendship

Adam Thomas as Donte Charles

Donte was seen in the first episode with his girlfriend Chlo Grainger. At the end of the episode he was (illegally) driving his father's car when he crashed it into a lorry, killing his friend Adam Deardon and leaving Holly Tattersall in a coma for several weeks. Chlo (who suffered a broken arm in the crash) tried to blame herself when Donte was the one driving under the influence of alcohol, but Chlo was mainly responsible as she climbed over him as he was trying to concentrate.

Donte spent three months on remand before being found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving, and received an 18-month suspended sentence.

Donte married Chlo in the first episode of Series 3, but their marriage was put on the rocks when she slept with her sister's boyfriend Brett Aspinall and Donte caught them. Chlo ran away and did not return for two weeks.

He and Chlo have not got back together, and Donte is now in a relationship with Celine Dixon. However, he did rescue her from the smoke-filled toilets at the end of the series, when deranged Stuart Hordley started a fire at the school.

Ellie Paskell as Maxine Barlow

Maxine dropped out of school as soon as she could claim benefit, planning to spend her days at the park with her mates and her money on the recreational drug habit she'd developed. Most of her friends deserted her - but there was a remarkable turnaround in her fortunes when Steph Haydock agreed she could stay with her. Maxine has returned to school and is making progress although she's easily led astray by Janeece and her part-time boyfriend Lewis Seddon.

During an archelogical dig, the remains of a baby's corpse was found by Karla Bentham and Janeece Bryant. Once the new head, Miss Mason found out she immediatley contacted the police. An investigation kicks off and Steph must interview each girl at Waterloo Road who has been to the school nurse with sexual health problems. In the end Maxine admits to Janeece that the baby was in fact hers, and it was stillborn. Baby Charlotte was buried by Maxine and was fathered by Lewis Seddon.

Tachia Newall  as Bolton Smilie

Named after the town of his conception (in the back of a transit van), Bolton is a thorn in the side of the teachers. When he does turn up to class he's generally empty handed and disruptive, often lasting only half the lesson before he's packed off to the cooler. More often than not he doesn't bother coming to lessons, preferring to roam the corridors, spraying his graffiti 'tag' on the walls. His absence from class is absolutely fine by most of the teachers, who get a hell of a lot more done without him. Bolton isn't a violent kid - violence takes too much energy - but he's a smart alec pain in the neck. He would have been expelled long ago if the LEA hadn't issued strict instructions to get the exclusion rates down.

At home, Bolton rules the roost and his single mother, Candice is at her wit's end and will do anything to keep him in school.
Bolton went on a camping trip with Paul and several lads other from his year, overseen by Grantly Budgen, Eddie Lawson, Tom Clarkson and Davina Shackleton. Bolton and Grantly spent much of the trip winding each other up. When Bolton had fallen down a cliff and became stranded, Eddie went to his aid, only to find Bolton was faking, resulting in Eddie injuring his neck and prematurely ending the trip.

Deciding something needed to be done to put an end Bolton and his friends' behaviour; Rachel Mason organized a school trip to a local prison in order to show them where they could eventually end up if they continued to act the way they did. Bolton soon announced he was excited to be visiting a prison, as his father was a respected prisoner in another prison (which turned out to be a lie) and if he himself was ever jailed, he would naturally know how to take care of himself.

During the trip, things quickly got out of hand, Matt Wilding inadvertently offended a prisoner serving time for GBH, and suffered internal injuries in the following fight, and Bolton himself was arrested for trying to buy drugs from the prisoners. Bolton was placed in a cell until it could be decided what would be done with him, he was soon joined by the prisoner he bought his drugs from, who was hostile towards Bolton as he thought he's turned him in for drug dealing. After a long time in his cell, Bolton eventually became afraid, realising he was not tough enough for prison, and even started to cry.

When Bolton was released, Rachel revealed that the prison was a disused prison after all, and all the prisoner and guards were, in fact, all actors, who were hired to teach him a valuable lesson. At first Bolton is sceptical but when Matt arrived completely unharmed - he realised he'd been set up. Having become fond of Rachel Mason, he lost his temper when he heard someone make a comment about her past, which inadvertantly led to him becoming a hero.

Bolton also saved the lives of Davina Shackleton and several other students during the Series 3 finale when the school caught alight


Chelsea Healy as Janeece Bryant

Janeece is a loudmouth. She's not afraid to start a fight if someone's annoying her and can be seen as a bit of a bully, though she is fiercely loyal to her friends. Though she does have a soft centre, most don't get to see it.

Janeece is a bright girl, but laziness and not seeing the point in education caused her to fail her GCSE's. However, former Deputy Head, Andrew Treneman inspired an interest in palaeontology on a school trip to the museum and now she is determined to work hard and make something of herself. Janeece has a heart of gold but a mind as malleable as putty.
Even though she thinks of herself as thick and incapable of learning, there remain sparks of intelligence, which belie her insistence that she is, in her own words, a "muppet".

Generally, Janeece is widely disliked by pupils, because of her reputation of spreading pointless rumours and apparent secrets about anyone, such as a fake rumour that English teacher Tom Clarkson engaged in sexual intercourse with an infatuated pupil, Stacey Appleyard. Janeece loses friends easily because of this (Stacey loses friendship with her and Maxine Barlow has recently stopped having a friendship with her after Janeece says not to go back to Lewis Seddon).[citation needed]

She has a keen interest in dinosaurs and would want to have a career involving those. Recently, American Jerry Preston (who recently has been in talks with Roger Aspinall) has been moulding the truth of dinosaurs into a more Christian outlook. He is then shown as a keen Christian preacher, and because of Janeece being gullible, she believes him about dinosaurs being dragons and the "Great Flood" (Noah) drowned them.[citation needed].

In the third series opener, Janeece was asked to keep the wedding of Donte Charles and Chlo Grainger a secret, but in typical Janeece fashion, she informed everyone in class.

In Episode 16, Janeece fell in love with a supply teacher - Wilson Bingham. They ran away to a hotel in Manchester. Wilson slept with Janeece, but then he took her clothes and fled the hotel. Steph Haydock and Tom Clarkson found Janeece at the hotel, they then fled to the Caravan park where Wilson was. He was arrested by the police. It was later revealed that Wilson was a paedophile and was wanted in connection
 

Jessica Baglow as Karla Bentham

When Karla first arrives at Waterloo Road the teachers are unsure how to deal with her, as they have not been trained to know how to handle students with autism. Her mother requests that she is to take tranquillizers regularly (seemingly identical to the ones Jack Rimmer has started taking), however Steph Haydock doesn’t believe that they will make a difference and keeps them from her.

On her first day at Waterloo Road, Mr Rimmer told her to wait outside (his office) when he wanted a private conversation with her mother, only for Karla to literally go outside of the building. Steph then told Karla to "wait for a second", and Karla responded by pointing out that she'd been waiting for 35 seconds.

Karla was placed in the lowest groups at Waterloo Road, because of her condition, but is shown to have an advanced understanding of certain subjects such as mathematics, so she is promptly moved to Grantly Budgen’s class. The moment she moved into this class, due to her literal interpretation of simple instructions she inadvertently disrupts the lesson when Grantly announced that he wants everyone to be quiet and then continues talking so Karla accused him of lying (she thought he was including himself when he said “everyone”). Grantly then threatened Karla who becomes afraid and disoriented so she arms herself with her chair, and warns Grantly not to touch her, when he continued to advance, she hit him with the chair. It is later established that this could have been avoided if she had taken he pills, but Steph denied all responsibilities. And in the next episode, Grantly placed her on the other side of the class room, and refused to acknowledge her presence, even when she was trying to answer the questions, despite protests from other students and Davina Shackleton who sympathizes with Karla, and takes a course on Asperger’s.

Karla took part in auditioning for the school musical, but is left off the list by accident and is thefore unable to finish her song, which confuses her as she has always finished while practising, Steph became inpatient and attempted to silence her and was slapped, and when Karla realized what she had done she runs out of school. An unlikely source, Lewis Seddon befriends Karla when he finds her behind the sheds, and is able to talk her into returning to class, although he initially referred to her as the "Asparagus kid".

Karla was also the first pupil to talk to Ben McNulty after news his HIV reached everyone at school, and expressed a greater understanding than the rest of the students. She later took part in an archeologically digging project with Aleesha Dillon and Danielle Harker, which was promptly cancelled after the remains of a dead baby were discovered. The three (Karla especially) were very disappointed, but were unable to convince the teachers to reconsider the situation. Danielle and Aleesha manipulate Karla into starting a petition to get the dig reinstated, putting her at odds with other students, particularly Mika Grainger, who was having a pregnancy scare (later found to be negative) at the time. It was later discovered that the Aleesha wrote the entire petition her self, and may have deliberately made it misleading.

Later on, Danielle began to regret having played a part in the petition. A week or so afterwards, she was growing tired of Aleesha's attitude to having lost the lead role, and was equally fed up with her friend's insistance that it was Karla's fault she was fired from the musical. After reading her diary, Danielle Harker and Aleesha Dillon decided to be a better friend to Karla Bentham. They found her hiding in the bin area, and convinced her to come out. Just at that moment, the wife of Grantly Budgen appeared and fainted. The three students united to help her recover.

Although a lot more sensible than her two friends, she has tended to give Danielle and Aleesha a free reign to continue being as minxy as they were before they met her, as she isn't the type to be judgemental or impulsive. Because she wasn't sat with her friends when the immigration officials returned, Karla was not in a position to aid her two mates in trying to stop one of the pupils being deported.

Lauren Thomas as Aleesha Dillon

New girl Aleesha is a very bright student with a quick wit and a cruel sense of humour. She's also a great actress - though perhaps not quite as good as she thinks - but she's got a good-ish singing voice. She and her new best mate, Danielle, form an intimidating clique. They dress similarly - customising their uniforms as much as they can get away with - have their own catchphrases, and feel superior to most of the other pupils. Most of their laughs come from a delight in others' faults or misfortunes and though they don't see themselves as school bullies (having no interest in violence or acquisition of lunch money), they're just as capable of making their peers' lives a misery.

Aleesha's mum, Angela, left college when she met her (now ex) husband - and has always regretted not finishing her education. Since the divorce five years ago, she has returned to work, getting a job as a bank clerk. She has high aspirations for her daughter - a university education and a well paid career - and this made her the ideal candidate to be poached from her previous school for Jack's bursary scheme.

Lucy Dixon as Danielle Harker

Danielle is a bright girl, but she can be a little self-opinionated and arrogant at times, as can her friend, Aleesha Dillon. Although they started Series 3 as a duo, it appears that Karla Bentham is slowly becoming a friend to both of them, particularly Danielle. Recently, Aleesha and Karla became a little more aware of the strictures of Danielle's family life, which she tried to avoid, due to their religious zeal concerning certain patterns of behaviour. However, disclosure of her domestic circumstances became inevitable, as Tom Clarkson insisted that Danielle get her mum and dad to attend parents evening. When Aleesha saw that her friend's hairstyle was a Conservative one, she teased Danielle, causing her to find sanctuary in one of the classrooms. After a heart-to-heart with Mr Clarkson, she came out of hiding, and Aleesha apologised, adding that Danielle could use her bedroom to change and do her hair in the style she likes.

Although mischievous, Danielle has been shown to be more sensible than Aleesha at times, and after the business with the petition, is a little less self-obssessed than she once was, and is beginning to take a leaf out of Mika Grainger's book, especially after joining in with her bid to save one of the trees, even though she didn't stay there the entire day, plus she tried her best to stop a friend of hers, Sameen, played by Fiona Wade, being deported. She faced further dismay as she and her mates, Karla and Aleesha, watched the school go up in flames.