After a eight year hiatus, Waterloo Road returned to screens on Tuesday night (January 3) for its much anticipated revival series. The BBC delighted fans in 2021 when it announced its popular school based drama, which ran from 2006 to 2015, would be returning for its 11th series.
The reboot of the award-winning series, which is once again filmed and set in Greater Manchester, features some original cast members including Adam Thomas and Katie Griffiths returning as much loved Donte and Chlo Charles, as well as Angela Griffin returning as Kim Campbell, who is now Waterloo Road's headteacher.
A bunch of famous faces have also joined the BBC show for the first time, including Coronation Street's Kym Marsh as Nicky Walters, a school canteen worker and mum to two pupils, and Hollyoaks and Corrie actress Rachel Leskovac as Coral Walker, head of English.
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Warning: Spoilers ahead…
The first episode wasn't short of excitement as it saw the pupils protest over changing the school's name from William Beswick, named after a slave trader, which quickly turned into a full blown riot.
After causing mayhem across the school, viewers saw headteacher Kim eventually announce the school's name would be changed to Waterloo Road.
The episode also explored issues of teen homelessness as viewers saw former pupil Danny Lewis, played by Adam Abbou, in hiding at the school before it was discovered that he was sleeping rough.
As Waterloo Road's new characters were introduced, the episode saw glimpses of pupils and teachers navigating through topical issues from being LGBTQ+ to racism, sexism, mental health and everything else facing young teens today.
But the biggest shock of all came at the end of the episode and involved returning favourites Chlo and Donte, who were now a married couple with two kids, their daughter Izzie, played by Adam's real-life niece Scarlett Thomas, and their son Tommy, played by Adam's son Teddy.
At the start of the show Chlo was seen hastily preparing a pitch for headteacher Kim Campbell about a new scheme for children. The mum-of-two walked with her daughter Izzie to her first day at school, but whilst traffic mounted during the protest, Chlo was hit by a car in a crash caused by head of English, Coral Walker.
Chlo fell to the floor but soon got up, and insisted on delivering her pitch to Kim. After returning home later in the day to her worried husband Donte, Chlo revealed she had realised she wanted become a teaching assistant at the school.
Chlo and Donte appeared more loved up than ever until a dramatic turn of events saw Chlo collapse in the kitchen and she was then taken to hospital.
In a shock ending, Donte was delivered the devastating news that Chlo had died. He held his children tightly in his arms as the trio sobbed and the credits rolled.
After waiting eight years to see the couple on screen again, Waterloo Road fans were left fuming at the tragic ending and issued complaints.
@_ercol93 tweeted: "Absolutely noooo wayyyy have I waited all these years for them to bring Waterloo Road back for them to kill Chlo off on the first epsiode. Wtf is this!!!."
@zestyweebo questioned: "Why would they make a massive deal of bringing waterloo road back just to kill off Chlo in the first episode? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE BBC #waterlooroadreturns."
@WingzAreHistory said: "No the fact they killed chlo off in the first episode of Waterloo Road is sick like what was the need?."
@EllennF_ added: "Chlo was always my favourite Waterloo road character I hate them for doing this."
Some even threatened to stop watching the rest of the series as @LukeRobboLFC78 tweeted: "I gave the new Waterloo Road more of a chance, I don’t know if its because I grew up watching the original which was amazing but I just couldn’t get into this one as it just didn’t feel the same, especially after what they did to Chlo & Donte. I’m not bothering with the rest."
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