15th August 2024
Waterloo Road: A Model for sustainable drama
Exec producers Leanne Klein and Cameron Roach talk up fiscal responsibility and decry dearth of long-running UK scripted shows.
The co-producers of Waterloo Road have called for a “structural conversation” around drama models to ensure the UK domestic scripted landscape can remain strong in a turbulent economic time.
Rope Ladder chief Cameron Roach and Wall to Wall managing director Leanne Klein said the UK drama community has “over-indexed on the authored voice” in recent years, emphasising high-end shorter run dramas, which has led to a dearth of sustainable, long-running scripted shows.
Leanne Klein and Cameron Roach
The duo, who are exec producers on Waterloo Road, were speaking to Broadcast as their reimagined BBC1 continuing drama scored a double order taking its commissioning tally to seven series since 2023. They talked up the value of dramas which prioritise “process over profit”, that entertain audiences but also contribute to the development and incubation of up-and-coming talent.
On Waterloo Road, the pair unapologetically likened the production to “feeding a machine”, with a big cast and crew of researchers, storyliners and emerging and established writers, all marshalled by experienced producers and exec producers from Rope Ladder and Wall to Wall.
“I really value the authored voice and authorship,” Roach noted. “But what long-running shows and higher-volume shows do is that we collectively hold that authorship between a producing team and a big group of writers – of different levels of experience.
“If you go into a room with an idea that has very experienced producers at its heart and you’ve got three or four emerging voices as well, you can have a really confident piece, especially if they’ve spent time in a room together.
“That notion of collective voice has diminished, and we’ve undervalued the role of producing and exec producing.”
Klein added: “Not only is Waterloo Road set up in a place where the creative industries need more training, nurturing and growing, but it runs all year round.
“There aren’t that many shows, even returning dramas, that do that. With this, there is a continuity of employment of all the crew, all the production staff, meaning we’re in a position where we can actually bring people in and train them. That benefits the show as well as the local community and the bigger industry.
“It’s sustainable and other the shows could be made on that model.”
Yet while nurturing talent is important, both Klein and Roach stressed this is not at the expense of creativity. “We do it to entertain viewers, particularly younger viewers,” Klein said, noting the drama is one of the BBC’s leading brands on iPlayer, especially with viewers under the age of 35.
“We’re doing a show about education, and it has to resonate with the audience, it has to ring true to them,” she said. “It’s funny, but it’s also gritty and deals with the day-to-day.”
Roach quipped: “We’re as issue-led as a Jimmy McGovern show, but we should be as entertaining as Schitt’s Creek. That’s the kind of balance we reach for.”
Process over profit
Waterloo Road was resurrected to partly take the place of N&R-shot Holby City which was axed in 2021. Recently, the BBC also cancelled Doctors due to the rising cost of production and funding challenges.
Its structure aims to be as fiscally efficient as possible. The precinct setting “means a fixed five-day week, all-year-round”, according to Klein, rather than having multi-location shooting, which drives up costs. Some 80% of the drama is filmed in studio and 20% on location, and never includes night shoots.
“As a start-up, I’ve been able to solely focus on the editorial because Leanne and Wall to Wall have such top-class legal, business affairs, financial and production management teams,” said Roach, who previously worked on the show during its first iteration when it was produced by now-defunct Wall to Wall sibling Shed.
He added: “We also focus on process over profit, while others often put the profit agenda at the front of the conversation. Leanne and I talk all the time about getting the process right. We know it isn’t a hugely expensive show, but we’ve built a production model that works and is fixed, and we can get better at our processes.”
“I’m obsessed with process,” Klein concurred. “Cameron and the team drive the creative side of it, and we run it as a show. It requires strong levels of trust and respect – being open and honest and always talking. We talk a lot about process, that’s what we do.
“You’d never do a co-pro if all you cared about was profit. It’s about how to make the best show.”
Development springboard
By setting up a clear process for Waterloo Road, Roach added, the respective indies’ development teams have been able to focus on building out their slates and “not worry about the downward pressure of having to win the next commission in a short space of time”.
For Rope Ladder, Roach said, the “clear sense of identity” stems from Waterloo Road.
“Any show that we are developing, either in funded development or that we’re self-developing, is an obvious stablemate to Waterloo Road in that it is about truthful lived emotions.
“It probably has an inherent entertainment quotient to it, a slight comedic hue. We’re not going to be stepping forward with a sci fi drama. There are shows that lean a little towards the Jimmy McGovern and shows that lean a little bit more to Schitt’s Creek, but that’s our sweet spot.”
For Wall to Wall, which has drama hub Wall to Wall North led by former Rollem development head Sian Palfrey, the aim is to “grow writing in the north”, Klein said.
“Sian already has a really good network of writers in the region. Ther is a bent in our slate towards factual drama, because that’s something we’ve done a lot of and also because we make a lot of documentaries and factual TV.
“There’s a few projects based on factual events in the pipeline, but it’s much more about developing relationships, developing writers who come from the North and working with them. It can be romance and it can be horror. And we’ve got both on the slate.”
Will the two companies collaborate on a project outside of Waterloo Road? While it’s not happened yet, Roach admitted it is a highly probable eventuality.
“We’ve got things in funded development and if they went quickly I would be making a big error if I wasn’t turning to Wall to Wall and saying: we should co-produce this together.
“Because if we’re having to get anything up within six to nine months, I don’t want to fast track any other relationships.”
