*This series of Waterloo Road concluded in March 2008*

Centred on a failing secondary comp in Rochdale where the pupils run riot and the teachers think their jobs are pointless, Waterloo Road was always going to be a controversial show. The first series featured parents barging into lessons, teenagers engaging in 'overt sexual behaviour' and teachers being attacked.

Some headteachers criticised the show for sending out the wrong signals and undermining viewers' confidence in the schools system - but viewers loved its gritty realism with more than five million tuning in for the series two finale earlier this year.

And what a term it had been. Lorna Dickey (Camilla Power) returned following her attempted suicide at the end of series one to see if there was still a spark between her and Tom Clarkson (Jason Done), who was now seeing drama teacher Izzie Redpath (Jill Halfpenny).

But Lorna soon had other things on her mind when she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. As time went on, Lorna was struggling to cope with her MS and committed suicide.

As always, headmaster Jack Rimmer had his own problems. Having been given the green light for Waterloo Road to stay open, work was beginning on the new state-of-the-art City Academy. After his run-in with former pupil Lewis Seddon in series one, bad boy Lewis and his cousin, Jed, were back to make life difficult for Jack by peddling drugs to the pupils from a burger van outside the school.

Determined to get rid of the Seddons once and for all, Jack confronted evil Jed and a fight ensued - ending in tragedy for Izzie...

With the school still reeling from Izzie's death, the third term at Waterloo Road sees the arrival of new deputy head Eddie Lawson (Neil Morrissey). Both Eddie and Jack are desperate to improve the school's exam results - but Eddie's desire to do everything by the book soon rubs Jack up the wrong way.

And there are some other new faces too. Izzie's replacement Matt Wilding (Chris Geere) proves a hit with the ladies - but is there more to him than meets the eye? And has newly qualified teacher Jasmine Koreshi (Shabana Bakhsh) bitten off more than she can chew...