It was a proud day for Waterloo Road actor Adam Thomas as he returned to his former secondary school. Former Emmerdale star Adam, 34, visited The Kingsway School in Cheadle to show young aspiring performers how to harness their acting skills.
Adam, who shot to fame in his breakthrough role as bad boy pupil Donte Charles in the Rochdale-based BBC One school drama in 2006, brightened up their morning with an inspiring talk about how he got from school plays to auditions, his top tips for conquering nerves and advice on how to break into the industry, and he got to see the pupils in action for their production of Bugzy Malone.
Earlier this month Adam, who went on to play Adam Barton in ITV soap Emmerdale from 2009 to 2018, made a big comeback to another important school in his life. He reprised his role as Donte for a reboot of Waterloo Road as the drama returned to Greater Manchester after eight years away.
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The new series reborn for 2023, also starring Angela Griffin and Kym Marsh, explores real life issues affecting young teens and families today including the cost of living, teen homelessness, racism, being LGBTQ+ and mental health, and Adam stars alongside his real-life son Teddy, eight, as Donte's son Tommy and his niece Scarlett, 14, who plays his daughter Izzy.
On visiting Kingsway with his wife Caroline, he told us: "I really enjoyed it. I talked to the pupils about the acting world and the aim was to encourage and to help them. It was nice talking to them because I was in their shoes."
Adam, who hosts the official Waterloo Road podcast as well as Mancs On The Mic alongside his two brothers, former Coronation Street actor Ryan and PR director and ex Love Island star Scott, said being back at Kingsway was like "going back in time."
"It hadn't changed one bit," he laughed. "Some of my teachers who are still there came out to see me and I felt I had to go round and apologise because I was a nightmare to handle." He admitted: "I was hard work."
Adam said he knew at school that he wanted to be an actor. His first acting job was on the BBC hospital drama Casualty in 2004, starring alongside Hollywood actress Imogen Poots, the fiancee of Happy Valley star James Norton.
Adam played the worried boyfriend of a girl, played by 28 Weeks Later and The Father star Imogen. It was a hard-hitting and educational storyline as her character was rushed to hospital with toxic shock syndrome.
"I look back at my report cards and I was always an entertainer and a class clown," he said. "My first acting job when I was still at school was in Casualty and I got that off the back of auditions. It was a great job."
Adam, who recently launched The Spinn Off bar in Stockport with his friend Scott Graham and has his own ranges of hot sauces, Oh My Glaze!, said about being back in the corridors of Waterloo Road, this time as school caretaker following the tragic death of his wife Chlo: "I was a kid when I was in Waterloo Road so it's great fun being back and I'm so proud of Teddy and Scarlett in the job that started my career, and now I get to watch them.
He continued: "It's great at such a young age to be doing the job that you love and in our family it's running through the blood. Teddy didn't get the part at first, someone else did. I had to tell he'd got the part after all and it was really nice."
Adam, who in 2016 was a contestant on the 16th series of ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! where he finished in third place, In October 2019, was thrilled by the reaction to his visit. "You never you whether they've listened but they came up and said 'I've really enjoyed your talk today. I want to show that anything is possible."
Waterloo Road airs every Tuesday on BBC One at 8pm, and the boxset is available in full on BBC iPlayer.
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