Waterloo road is a BBC one TV drama that focuses on teenage lives who attend high school; the plots are always focused on events in pupil’s lives within the school and outside of school. The show also focuses on adults related to the school or the teenagers/pupils. Waterloo road is not a watershed tv drama therefore is suitable for most age groups. The characters are represented in many different ways, for example represented by their class/status, sexuality, physical ability/disability, ethnicity, age and gender, regional identity.
The representations are shown through mise en scene, as the characters who differ from various class/status are shown to have lack of self-health and lack of money to afford things, a character which are shown this way is Jade, a 16 year old girl who ran away from home with her 17 year old boyfriend and is shown living in poverty in an abandoned flat and is desperate to go to school to gain qualifications and steals a uniform from a pupil to be able to fit in. he setting and props enhance the audiences view as it shows to be very rough and dirty as well as the costumes of the character, it makes the audience think that people who are working class or have no qualifications may end up living like that. It also represents age as it shows the teenagers getting more help once adults in the school offer them support and help them, shows the immaturity of teenagers therefore may lead audience to believe teenagers are very naive and need adult help.Sexuality in Waterloo road is shown to be a very confusing topic as Gay character Josh, seems to be embarrassed almost and hides it away from his dad and his best friend.
But then later on in the series, he is revealed to have an Mental health issue , which is also relatable to another BBC One TV drama Eastenders, as gay character Ben Mitchell is also shown to have a mental health issue, which may lead to audience who watch BBC one overall, to think that being gay means you have a mental health issue, and may be viewed to the audience in a negative way.Physical ability and disability is shown through mise en scene also as the props being used shows the disability through character Tariq, who was paralyzed from the lower part of his body due to a car accident, is shown in a wheelchair, also represented with the use of body language to be leading quite a difficult life and is sad about his disability, this may give a view to the audience that people with disabilities lead a sad life also may affect the disabled audience making them believe they should be sad.Ethnicity is represented in Waterloo road by costumes, as a Muslim girl Trudi Siddiqui is shown representing her religion by wearing a headscarf , also New girl Lula who moved from Africa is shown to have a African accent to represent her immigration perhaps, the effect it has on the audience maybe that all immigrants have accents or that all muslim girls wear headscarfs. Age is represented through the characters costumes and dialogue.
The costumes for the adults are shown to be smart and mature, whereas the teenagers are shown to wear uniforms, hoodies, bright clothing and short skirts , bare midriff tops etc. lso the dialogue within the characters are different, as the adults use normal English language and sophisticated words whereas the teenagers are shown to use street slang words, such as ‘Blud’ and ‘Yo’. This may lead the audience to think stereotypically of age groups and feel as if all teenagers as like this. This shows that society is a ‘labeling’ society and also runs on ‘Sub-culture’ groups. Gender is represented through Costume and Body language, the boys are shown to wear hoodies, trainers, loose clothing and hats etc.
Whereas girls are shown to be wearing skirts,dresses,figure hugging clothing and heels, jewelry and hair accessories. This may be to try and show the audience the differences within gender groups and also may be showing the stereotyping within society when it comes to clothing. Regional identity is shown within Waterloo road as the location of the school is in Manchester, the people who moved to Manchester in the story line seem to have a different accent in the Drama, the use of dialogue empathizes the difference between the regions in the country and shows the audience that, makes the show more realistic too.
