School drama brought back a mixed bag of memories for Ackley Bridge star Liz White

GOING back into the classroom for the new series of Ackley Bridge reminded Liz White that schooldays aren’t always the best of your life.

Liz plays teacher Emma in the Channel 4 school drama which is back for a new run after a well-received debut last year.

And the versatile actress – many will remember her as WPC Annie Cartwright in the much-loved Life On Mars more than a decade ago – says it did bring back memories.

“It wasn’t black and white for me, more a bit of grey,” Liz told iN10.

“There were some achievements but also some not nice experiences. It was very much a mixed bag.

“We film in a school, so it’s evocative the minute you walk through the gates and there is a sense of nostalgia.

“It’s a place of learning but also of gossip, rivalry and competition. My student days were some of the hardest of my life, but you learn such a lot.

“Not just in the classroom but also what’s going on outside.

“You have the difficulties of having to do all those exams and studying whilst finding out about who you are as a person. And you’re changing from a girl into a woman.

“They were quite difficult times as socially it was sometimes brilliant and sometimes really hard. It was a real mixed bag.

“I remember girls dealing with anorexia and parents splitting up.

“There are these big personal experiences going on during what are meant to be the most important years of your life.

“I think it’s very tough on kids now, especially with exams starting at such a young age.”

Filmed in Halifax, Ackley Bridge is fictional Yorkshire mill town with a largely divided white and Asian community.

But they are thrown together in the merged college with Jo Joyner as head teacher Mandy, Paul Nicholls as husband Steve and ex-Casualty favourite Sunetra Sarker another of the big names in the cast.

“I knew from the start that this had all the ingredients of a hit show, but you never know how things will go,” said Liz.

“I’ve done some things in the past which I felt were really good but they didn’t get re-commissioned.

“But I always thought that, because of its 8pm slot, this was the sort of thing teenagers could watch with their parents.

“You have the adult and the pupils storylines and the feedback was that those two generations were coming together.

“I’m really proud of the show and the way the Asian community is represented.”

Liz loves her character’s passion, which does come with a fair amount of chaos including this series seeing her become involved in a love triangle, and she also enjoys working alongside former EastEnder Jo.

“I like that we have scenes together that aren’t just two women discussing boyfriends, which is usually the norm,” says Liz.

“But if it’s two men they might be talking football or politics of all sorts of things.

“There are strong female leads in the show and that’s brilliant.

“You can see a shift starting to happen where there are more women writers, producers and directors.

“They are bringing scripts that are more representative.”

And that’s something that Liz has admired in other recent dramas, including divorce lawyer series The Script, starring Nicola Walker, Annabel Scholey and Deborah Findlay.

“I really appreciated that it had very fine male actors playing some quite under-written parts,” adds Liz.

“They had the least to say and the least interesting characters. It was interesting to see these really good actors having to do what women have had to do for years.

“That’s having to make the most of not very much. And on the other side of it you have fantastic actresses leading the show.

“They were proving that, of course, women could do that and it’s just as interesting as when men do it.

“It’s such welcome, positive change.”

Ackley Bridge, Channel 4, Tuesday, 8pm