We all remember the Channel 4 series Educating Yorkshire that followed the staff and students at Thornhill Community Academy. Well, the team is set to return for a new series a decade after the original, which was filmed back in 2013. The inspirational English teacher, Mr Burton, has had a huge promotion since we last saw him.
Twofour is set to follow the now headteacher, Mr. Burton, who had the tear-jerking moment of the previous series where he helped Musharaf Asghar, otherwise known as Mushy, to overcome his stutter by using a technique he’d seen in The King’s Speech. For the past year, cameras have been back at Thornhill Community Academy.
Adverts for the new series were shown on Friday night in between Channel 4’s popular shows, getting us excited for another venture over to Thornhill Community Academy.
Fast forward ten years – the “Educating Yorkshire” series proved to be one of the most popular factual documentaries on Channel 4. With its humour, poignant moments, and great characters like Ryan Ward (“Sir, have you tried the coffee? I’m ‘avin a latte”), it’s easy to see why.
Mr Burton is now at the helm as Head Teacher, dealing with new challenges along with staff such as teenage anxiety, exam pressures, mobile phones and, along with that, one of today’s biggest challenges for teens, social media.
Schools are facing new challenges now, such as teenage anxiety, a post-COVID attendance crisis, and the influence of mobiles and social media. Additionally, there are difficulties in retaining and recruiting teachers. Filming will occur over the 2024/2025 school year, so it will be a while until it makes it to air.
Speaking to Broadcast Now, co-creator Clews said that the new series will be a “reimagination” of the original series. Telling Broadcast: “We don’t want to feel like we’re telling the same stories the same way,” he explained. “Creatively, we’ll still use the fixed rig in the way that we did before and follow the stories in an unobtrusive way. But we’ve got ambition for this to look and feel bigger and better than ever before.”
He continued: “We’ve always celebrated the good work that teachers and all the staff do in the schools and we definitely want to be able to do that again, but through the lens of 2025,” he elaborated. “We want to look at that bigger question of ‘what is modern Britain?’ through the eyes of a school that we all know and love.”
Mr Burton said: “The national challenges the profession faces are well publicised, and at Thornhill, I’m really proud of how our staff and students work together to thrive through those. Our values – ‘work hard and be nice’ – are at the centre of all we do; I have no doubt that viewers will see those come to life in our brilliant community.”
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Feature Image Credit: Channel 4
