Chris Finch in Waterloo Road

[Fran]

Poor Colin...well, if THIS really does happen in episode 12...
xx Joanna xx

.......It could mean some anger, angst, and making up! All things a certain someone's brilliant at portraying! So it doesn't really bother me...mind you if it was Todd messing Karl about, THEN I'd be mad!

Less than a week to episode 10!

 

[Booth]

Would you like some exclusive news... Cool news, about our boy Finchy...

 

[Joanna]

Yes, please!

xx Joanna xx

EDIT: You awful tease, Mike!!

 

[Booth]

Damn, I expected more of a reaction that just Joanna asking for it, where are the Finchy Faithful... Suppose it's late though

Don't be too expectant it's not that big a deal, well not for some people, but it's a bit of a landmark for Chris at least.

 

[Joanna]

it's a bit of a landmark for Chris at least.

Michael! I've really gotta go now, too (I'm not entirely awake right now!)...and then I'm not online again until much later on! Michael!

xx Joanna xx

PS: Wonder if I'll be right as to who'll be the first one to respond to this 'news'! <B)

 

[Fran]

Would you like some exclusive news... Cool news, about our boy Finchy...

What's better than an alarm clock when you have to get up early on a Saturday?

A text from Joanna telling you there's going to be some Chris news on the WR thread!!

o.k.......so the news isn't here yet but, I'm up and ready for work!

Hope 'we've' found out wot it's all about by the time I get home later.....

 

[Booth]

Waterloo Road, Episode 15...

Chris takes top billing on the end credits. I think for the first time in his career in any production (aside from Bar Stewards but that isn't finished yet so doesn't really count).

This is definite because I know the fellow who created the end credits.

No idea if that means he has a lot of screen time, but interesting that he gets top billing in that particular episode.

 

[Joanna]

Thanks for letting us know, Mike. Pretty cool. Can imagine how that would be a big deal for any actor/actress.

Laura told me the other day, though, that she noticed how the end credits for the last episode had the cast listed in appearance order. I hadn't been paying any attention to the credits to know (well, what the Beeb lets you see of them!)! Anyway, I assume that this then applies to the end credits on every episode. For cast listings in 'importance' order, I'm sure that's how they do it in the Radio Times.

So, that means that not only does Chris head the episode 15 cast list in the end credits, but Colin is also the first character on screen for that same episode! Even better!

(Sorry, Mike and Chris!)

xx Joanna xx

 

[Booth]

You know that now somewhere Chris is crying after reading that Joanna

 

[Cop]

What episode are we on now?

I watched the one last week about the dead baby in the grounds, but I went off it when that annoying Headteacher resigned, he did my head in him! The kids created banners and tried to convince him stay... I needed a sick bucket

But in a guilty way, I like the show, its a good concept, but considering it's supposed to be a really run down school, the kids are all very mature, and deal with adult themes like adults, they handle somethings better than the staff... I'm not sure if it's meant to be like that sometimes.

It's a school set in Rochdale! Have you ever been to Rochdale!? The place is nothing like Rochdale, last time I went to Rochdale, some kids no older than 14 asked me for LSD!

The script is so far from reality, I havn't heard the words, "knobhead", "mong", "retard", "bellend" or "spaz" coming from the kids yet... they are like public school kids, respecting thier teachers and being quite pally with them. The writers of this show obviously didn't go Fearns High near Bacup.

Sorry I had to get that off my chest, Chris is good in it though, from what I have seen so far... if Colin and that Drama teacher were known to be gay at Fearns, they would have been "gay bashed" for being "bummers"

End of rant... deep breaths

 

[Joanna]

You know that now somewhere Chris is crying after reading that Joanna

Why do you think I put in that 'sorry' bit at the end (now with another name added after yours!)?!

considering it's supposed to be a really run down school, the kids are all very mature, and deal with adult themes like adults

I think that's only partially true, tbh. Can only comment on how they are this series, as it's the only one I've watched, but a lot of pupils there seem extremely immature and narrow-minded to me. They're not all like that, obviously, but they appear to number a fair few. For instance, when the whole school found out that one of their fellow pupils was HIV positive, many didn't react all all well to it, thinking that they'd catch it by simply touching him, etc. This 'ignorance' was headed by the adorable Bolton Smilie, who at one point poured water over him because he said he was dirty and needed to be washed. Nice.

And I did think that having Mika have that pregnancy scare was an incredibly contrived part of the last episode. You already had the central story of the remains of Maxine's baby being discovered in the school grounds, so to have another 'baby' story in the episode didn't ring true for me. Mika's pregnancy worries also seemed to come out of nowhere, too. Would of worked better, I think, if they'd fleshed out Maxine's story more and cut Mika's story altogether.

It's episode 10 next week, btw. It's then off air for Christmas and returns in January (heard the 10th, though don't know if that's right or not).

xx Joanna xx

 

[Fran]

The important thing is he's top billing! - his name will still appear first and therefore be noticed by more people and wont get squished when they start messing about with the credits!! Got to be good! Congratulations Chris.

As for the pro's and con's of how they portray the school, I can't really comment much, it's a little while (and a bit) since I was at school, but I've been enjoying the series and watched it more from the point of view of how the teachers are coping with and reacting to what happens in the school, rather than how possible or impossible the stories really are. (I think, Paul, the reason you got the impression some of the kids are more public school types than your everyday comprehensive kid, is possibly because part of the running storyline is that the school have encouraged some kids from more academic backgrounds to come to the school, to make the school's performance stats look good.)

 

[Joanna]

Remember Chris is in tonight's episode (on BBC1 in about 5 minutes!)!

xx Joanna xx

 

[Booth]

Laura told me the other day, though, that she noticed how the end credits for the last episode had the cast listed in appearance order. I hadn't been paying any attention to the credits to know (well, what the Beeb lets you see of them!)! Anyway, I assume that this then applies to the end credits on every episode. For cast listings in 'importance' order, I'm sure that's how they do it in the Radio Times.

Was at the post-production company today where Waterloo Road is completed. Infact Waterloo Road was there on the screens being worked on while we were hanging around.

With Coppack as my witness I found out that in one particular episode Chris does get a lot of air-time.

So there you doom-mongerer!

We also saw Channel 4's alternative Christmas message. It really is offensive, and I'm told probably won't be shown. Would be great if they did though.

 

[Joanna]

With Coppack as my witness I found out that in one particular episode Chris does get a lot of air-time.
So there you doom-mongerer!

I never said he didn't have plenty of screen time, did I?!

Well, taking episode 15 as Chris's next, and last, episode, then we'll have a bit of a wait for that one (7 February, if the episodes run without break after its 10 January return)!

Get the impression quite a bit of Chris's stuff from tonight's episode was cut - possibly not too far off from its transmission. Just going by how high up in the Radio Times cast list Chris/Colin was, I was expecting him to be in it tonight quite a bit more than he was. Also, those two close-up shots of him in the musical's audience felt slightly random, as if they were actually meant to fit in with more that was intended to be seen of Chris in this episode. Roll on 7 February for episode 15, then....

xx Joanna xx

 

[Cop]

There is more hype of Waterloo Road: Episode -15 than there was for the new Star Wars: Episode I

I noticed that Chris stuff looked to have been film seperatly to everything else... maybe Chris can confirm what was happening there... maybe there was a schedule conflict with a more important project! )

Yes, we saw a sneek peak of episode 18 today... about 9 frames.

But that Christmas message looked fantastic... it will get shown, it might have to be censored a bit, but it will be shown, i hope

Cop

 

[Fran]

Phew, I just had a panic stricken half hour thinking my dvd hadn't recorded!!! It has though, big sigh of relief.

I really, really enjoyed tonights episode. Not nearly as much Chris as we'd hoped, but apart from that, I loved the whole musical story. It was brilliant. It did seem a bit odd that they panned to Colin being in the audience but didn't actually let us see him interacting with Matt a lot more beforehand. Or maybe we're just being greedy and noticing the lack of Colin because it's Chris.

But, he got second billing tonight in the credits!

Now we have another long wait until 10th January - on the bright side, I might have worked out how to use my dvd recorder properly by then!

 

[Booth]

Don't want to big things up too much but at the time of writing, Chris is in every scene in Bar Stewards (cough) up till about the 15th minute

And even then it's only two scenes till he's back on-screen for a further 20 minutes.

 

[Joanna]

Shouldn't that be in another PSF board, Mike?



xx Joanna xx

 

[Strawbs]

Missed it.

I was at a last minute invite only test screening on the other side of London. Typical. I haven't actually watched WL since the HIV episode so I'm not exactly bothered about missing it really. Just a shame it was one with a decent bit of Chris in.