Perrie Balthazar and Matt Evans, Midlands writers who met on EastEnders, set their fourth BBC Three drama inside a pupil-referral unit where Billy (Alex Draper), Summer (Lauren Corah), Darcy (Jayden Hanley), Khaled (Krish Bassi), Rani (Tara Webb) and Leila (Imogen Baker) have landed after mainstream schools gave up. Each 30-minute episode tracks the six as they sit the same corridors, share the same probation officer and discover the only syllabus left is loyalty.
The show's first block dropped on 21 March 2023; three more followed inside eighteen months, pushing the episode count to 40 and making it one of BBC Three's fastest-turnaround returning dramas. Claire Tailyour and Karl Neilson direct the Midlands locations like a housing-estate western: graffitied underpasses, portable-classroom huts, a kebab shop that doubles as confession booth. Cinematographer Claudio Cadman keeps the palette overcast so the occasional burst of colour, a red hoodie or neon nail varnish, feels like a small act of resistance.
Cast turnover stays low: Orla McDonagh joins as Billy's half-sister Rihanna in series two, Eloise Pennycott's Daisy becomes a regular from the same point, while Mia Tharia's Polly drifts from recurring to guest, proof that even the unit can't always keep its own. Writers room stays in-house; Evans and Balthazar script most episodes themselves, insisting on the region's cadence so a detention ends with “see you later, yeah?” not a moral. The result is a drama that treats teenage failure as a collective condition, not a cliff-hanger, and lets the underdog speak without a redemption arc stamped on its homework diary.
Production Details
BBC Three / 4 Seasons / 40 Episodes / 2023 - Present
Created by: Matt Evans, Perrie Balthazar
Writer(s): Perrie Balthazar, Matt Evans
Producer(s): Alison B. Matthews
Main Cast
Orla McDonagh as Rihanna
Lauren Corah as Summer
Jayden Hanley as Darcy
Joshua Cullinane as Nathan
Krish Bassi as Khaled
Imogen Baker as Leila
Alex Draper as Billy
Tara Webb as Rani
Lauren Rose Crace as Ms Benson
Marc Hughes as Mr. Edwards
Tyler Fayose as Jamie Stewart
Jassal Kaur Kullar-Bell as Cassidy
