RadioTimes.com<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m extremely proud of it, but stunned to think that it\u2019s 20 years. Stunned. Gutted! I\u2019m gutted to think it\u2019s 20 years!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nHaving written the one-off comedic thriller Out of the Deep Pan for the BBC and later an episode of Ballykissangel, Loane\u2019s next project was to be a series for Channel 4 \u2013 located in Belfast and exploring \u201cthat moment when people are about to become adult\u201d, it would\u2019ve followed \u201cyoung professionals just out of college, wanting to change the world, but stuck in a world of hedonism and sexual obsession that meant that they couldn\u2019t\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\nLoane had completed six scripts when the project was cancelled. \u201cI was devastated. I thought, \u2018Oh my God, this is the end of the world\u2019, having spent maybe two years working on this<\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n12 months later though, he was approached again by Johnathan Young, Commissioning Editor at Channel 4, with whom he\u2019d worked on the Belfast-set series. Young suggested relocating the series from Belfast to Bristol \u201cfor all kinds of production reasons\u201d and also setting it in a school, with the cast of young professionals recast as teachers. \u201cI said, \u2018I would love to do that, that\u2019d be fantastic,’\u201d Loane recalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone has been to school, so everyone has an opinion of school \u2013 they either loved it or hated it, or somewhere in-between, but everyone has funny stories, or painful stories\u2026 so I thought, \u2018My God, this is such an important part of people\u2019s lives \u2013 why has nobody made a drama about it?\u2019.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nLoane\u2019s wife was also a teacher, meaning that he had \u201cready access\u201d to the world. \u201cShe wouldn\u2019t thank me for saying this, but I knew how often she was going into work with a terrible hangover back in the early days, so I was very familiar with that.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cChannel 4 commissioned me to write a pilot and a series outline, and they liked them a lot. Then we took it to [production company] Tiger Aspect, and the rest is history \u2013 off we went.\u201d<\/span><\/p> Teachers \u2013 as the show came to be known \u2013 was Loane\u2019s first series commission and he looks back on it now as a \u201cproper baptism of fire.\u201d \u201cThe pressure was unbelievable \u2013 it was like, \u2018Right, we\u2019ll start filming this in three or four months time, and we\u2019re starting to cast it\u2026\u2019 and there was only one script written! And it had to go through myriad drafts. So it was intense, very stressful, But the end result, I was just blown away by \u2013 it\u2019s just magnificent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nTeachers\u2019 portrayal of the education system was like nothing seen on TV before \u2013 the teachers themselves were barely much older or more mature than their students, their questionable decision-making powered by booze and fags.\u00a0\u201cMost of the friends I knew who had gone into teaching had done so because they didn\u2019t know what else to do when they left college,\u201d Jane Fallon \u2013 Executive Producer for Tiger Aspect \u2013 explains. \u201cThey were only a few years older than the children they had responsibility for and their own lives were messy and chaotic.\u00a0 That was the feeling we wanted to get across.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe first role to be cast was the lead, English teacher and charming rascal Simon Casey, with Fallon suggesting Andrew Lincoln having previously worked with him on the BBC\u2019s seminal 1990s drama This Life. \u201cThe character Simon could be quite annoying on paper \u2013 he was a bit of an idiot and desperate to be popular with the kids \u2013 but it was important that the audience liked him so we needed an actor who could play against that, bring a funnier, more charming side to Simon.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI remember sitting in a meeting with the writing team, talking about this problem and suddenly realising Andy would be absolutely perfect, so I left the meeting and put a call in. Once we had him in our heads the character really came to life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI remember meeting Andy, who I was aware of from This Life,\u201d says Raquel Cassidy, who played Psychology teacher and Simon\u2019s best friend Susan Gately. \u201c<\/span>He was really fun and lovely in the audition \u2013 I\u2019m sure he was like that to every other potential Susan \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t difficult to like him, which is a great testament to his ability to make someone feel at ease, which is perfect for Simon but also very much a trait that Andy has.\u201d<\/p>\nCassidy was offered the part of Susan after three auditions, but wasn\u2019t sure whether to accept as she was still waiting to hear back on another job where she was one of three finalists. \u201c[Casting director Di Carling] said, \u2018You can have it, or you can wait and see if you get the other one, but I\u2019m not gonna wait for you,\u2019 \u2013 I did see the other series unfold and I did always wonder if they would\u2019ve offered it to me, but I think [Teachers] was very much the right choice and well done Di for forcing me to make it!\u201d<\/p>\n
Nina Sosanya, cast as no-nonsense English teacher Jenny Paige, was already familiar with her future co-star Lincoln as the pair were appearing in different productions at the National Theatre at the time she was auditioning for Teachers. \u201cI\u2019d had two callbacks, but the closer I got to getting the part the more nervous I became. <\/span><\/p>\n\u201cMy last audition was a chemistry read with Andy \u2013 the thought of not getting the job and having to pass him at work was a bit excruciating \u2013 my nerves started to literally paralyse me to the point where my eyes started to close involuntarily. It possibly came across as Jenny\u2019s withering indifference to Simon and got me the job.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n