She was known for her caring and passionate nature as Waterloo Road's head of pastoral care, but Kim Campbell is now set to return to the school with a brand new role. Angela Griffin, 46, joined the cast of the BBC 's school-based drama for its first series back in 2006, and despite being absent from series three, she played the straight-talking teacher up until 2010.
During her 30-year career, the Leeds actress has been a familiar face on British TV, having starred in Coronation Street for six years, as well as appearing in Emmerdale, Holby City, hosting her own daytime show on Sky1 and most recently appearing in Netflix's horror film Choose or Die.
Now, after more than 10 years since she was last in Kim's shoes, Angela will reprise her role in the new revised series of Waterloo Road, which is set to air in January 2023 - and this time Kim has been promoted to the school's headteacher.
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But after getting the initial call to say Waterloo Road could be returning to screens once again, the Kim Campbell actress revealed she wasn't entirely convinced at first.
In an exclusive chat with the Manchester Evening News, Angela revealed: "Obviously you hear about shows coming back all the time, and unless there’s a good enough story, then I think some things should be left where they were.
"It's been a long time, it’s been seven years since it came off screen, so when they were first thinking about bringing it back I thought ‘hmm we’ll see’.
"But then the executive producer pitched to me why it was coming back, and once I'd heard what it would be about, then it was an instant yes."
The popular Greater Manchester-based drama was axed in 2015, but in September 2021 bosses delighted fans by announcing they were bringing the show back - and Angela emphasised there's a real reason why. "This isn’t about just rehashing, it’s back for a reason, there’s a purpose behind it," the actress said.
She added: “It needed to come back because there are so many seeds to be sown. We are not scraping around for storylines, the topics are so relevant and there is so much to talk about."
Across the term, Waterloo Road's staff, students and their parents will navigate through topical issues including homelessness, the cost of living, being LGBTQ+, racism, sexism, mental health and everything in between, with headteacher Kim at the core.
"The young people of this generation have been most affected by Covid, their education was literally taken away from them, there has been a massive impact on teachers and now we've got the cost of living crisis, so this is an opportunity to explore all of that. There are a lot of stories that need to be told," Angela continued.
Waterloo Road’s Manchester base also underlines the BBC’s commitment to boost drama production skills in the North of England. "Bringing the show back is also about developing northern talent and representation of class, gender and everything behind the scenes, and for me that was a massive draw to doing it," Angela added.
"I’m from Leeds originally so I’m northern, I'm from a working class family and I didn’t go to drama school," she said. "So when that idea went hand in hand with the stories it was an absolute no brainer."
Angela was even more convinced when she found out that Kim had been promoted to the school's headteacher and says revisiting the role is a 'dream come true'. "When the idea of Kim being the new head was first pitched to me, I thought that’s brilliant," she said.
"All you want to do as an actor is play really interesting characters, and the fact that I’m getting to play an evolved Kim Campbell in a different role is just brilliant, it’s an absolute dream. One of the main reasons that I’ve loved it is because Kim has always been pastoral, she's very child orientated and passionate about the lives of the children, very confident in her views - everything a teacher should be. So to go and become a head is not necessarily the road you would have expected her to go down because the role is a lot more managerial, more budgeting and all that kind of stuff."
Angela then hinted at what fans can expect from Kim in her new role, and teased that there may be some mysteries as to why she has now taken over as the school's headteacher. "The reason that she is now head is because certain things in her life have changed in the last 10 years, and she has changed as a human being," she said.
“But there’s also a real struggle for Kim because at heart she is pastoral," she explained. "She knows that there is not one style of education that fits every single child, she wants to help every individual kid, but you can’t do that as a headteacher. So that’s where her struggle and conflict comes into it, from trying to be a head but having Kim’s heart."
Angela added: "What I love about playing Kim is her passion. and I really feel that she is a true representation of of a teacher. She doesn’t want to be anywhere else or do anything else. It’s really nice playing someone who knows who she is and really cares about what she is doing, and in the name of the kids, she’ll do anything."
Other cast members returning to the show, which is set to air next month, include Adam Thomas, who plays Donte Charles, and Katie Griffiths as Donte's wife Chlo Charles. New cast members include Vincent Jerome playing deputy head Lindon King, James Baxter as the second deputy head and Kym Marsh as a dinner lady and mum-of-two Nicky Walters.
“It’s so exciting," said Angela. "We’ve been working on this for so long that we’ve almost got to the point where we’ve forgotten we’re making a show that’s going to go out on the BBC in January hopefully to a big audience. I’m dead nervous but I can’t wait.
“To me this is still the same Waterloo Road that everybody knows and loves, it's still got the spine of the original show but it’s so current, it’s so 2022. I hope everyone loves it."
Waterloo Road fans can watch the new series on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in on January 3, 2023.
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