Doctor Who<\/a> spin-off Class. \u201cI\u2019d be doing it now if they\u2019d let me.\u201d<\/p>\nFollowing a group of students at Coal Hill school, Class was Doctor Who\u2019s third spin-off since its 2005 revival. With a celebrated young adult author at the helm, Class was a series in the same vein as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, always bursting with ideas and deeply invested in its characters. After the success of The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood, Class seemed set to reach similar heights \u2013 until it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Five years since the show aired, creator Patrick Ness, director Ed Bazalgette, and stars Greg Austin, Sophie Hopkins, and Jordan Renzo look back on Class \u2013 reflecting on its complicated relationship with Doctor Who, their experiences making the show, its untimely cancellation, and the series two episodes we never saw.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nClass began life when Patrick Ness was asked to write for Doctor Who. \u201cIt was a bit unexpected,\u201d he remembers. \u201c[The BBC] approached me to see if I\u2019d be interested in writing episodes of Doctor Who, but I declined, feeling like I really wanted to work on my own creations at that point. To my surprise, they said, \u2018Well, we\u2019ve got this other idea\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>
\u201cThey had been inspired by The Caretaker, where the Doctor was undercover at Coal Hill. Their first idea was to have another caretaker-type character,\u201d Ness continues. \u201cI remember they\u2019d mentioned Frank Skinner as a possible idea \u2013 but I said, with the greatest respect to Frank Skinner, if you do that in a show for teens, what you\u2019ve got is a bunch of teens waiting around for an adult to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI argued that you\u2019d have to get it away from what Sarah Jane Adventures did so beautifully and make it for older teens, who are all about having their own agency and making their own choices. In other words, they\u2019re the centre of the show, not the authority character.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey liked that idea, and my pitch for the show came together really fast\u201d says Ness. \u201cIt\u2019s how I knew it was working, ideas came fast and furious. Which they don\u2019t always.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ed Bazalgette \u2013 who had recently directed Doctor Who series nine episodes The Girl Who Died and The Woman Who Lived \u2013 soon joined the series as lead director.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn [Doctor Who] I was working with [Class producer] Derek Ritchie. We had a good rapport and I really enjoyed working with Derek: he has great instincts, insightful and supportive,\u201d explains Bazalgette. \u201cLater in the year there was a call from [executive producer] Brian Minchin and we started talking Class. Over Christmas I read the first script and also A Monster Calls and More Than This to get more of a sense of Patrick\u2019s writing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Writer and screenwriter Patrick Ness (Getty)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nBazalgette directed the first three episodes of Class \u2013 For Tonight We Might Die, The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo, and Nightvisiting \u2013 and was heavily involved in the initial stages of production. \u201cAs lead director you come in and become an integral part of setting up the series,\u201d he explains. \u201cTone, style, locations, feeding back on scripts, casting \u2013 you\u2019re immersed in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCasting is always such an important process,\u201d continues Bazalgette. \u201cFirst and foremost, you\u2019re deciding who will play your characters but there\u2019s so much more to it. You\u2019re hearing scenes out loud often for the first time, you\u2019re getting all these nuances in the way scenes are performed, and it\u2019s exciting seeing the script start coming off the page. Then there\u2019s the chemistry between the characters to be considered. Sophie, Vivian, Greg and Fady all really shone out and worked well together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was sent initially one scene to audition with,\u201d explains Sophie Hopkins, who played April O\u2019Neill, an ordinary student thrown into an extraordinary world. \u201cThere had been a lot of hush-hush around the project so at that time they weren\u2019t giving much away!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scene they sent me was from the first episode, where April wants to ask Charlie to the prom and is too shy to ask directly,\u201d she continues. \u201cBoth characters are so sweet and unaware, and simultaneously manage to be encouraging and caring for each other without having a clue what\u2019s going on! I fell in love with the two of them immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat drew me to the script initially was the wonderful relationship between Quill and Charlie,\u201d says Jordan Renzo, who played Matteusz Andrzejewski, very much the moral centre of the group. \u201cI auditioned three times. First for Matteusz, then Charlie, and then finally in the room with everyone for Matteusz again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember thinking \u2018if this is the last time you speak these lines, go in and enjoy yourself\u2019,\u201d he continues. \u201cIt passed in a blur and next thing I know my agent called me with the offer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greg Austin and Katherine Kelly in Doctor Who spin-off Class (BBC)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n\u201cI was out in Los Angeles for pilot season when the final recall for Class came through,\u201d remembers Greg Austin, who played alien prince in exile Charlie Smith, \u201cso I had to make a wager (at a time when I had very little money to play with) and buy an expensive, last-minute flight back to London.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI almost didn\u2019t go, but ultimately took the risk because of how interesting the role was,\u201d he continues. \u201cThe allure of working with Patrick Ness and forever holding a place within the Whoniverse was enough for me to gamble on the flight, and boy, did it pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n
How did they each feel, stepping into a Doctor Who spin-off?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a tremendous privilege,\u201d says Renzo. \u201cOf course, there is pressure there, but also pride. It all seemed so overwhelming at first that I didn\u2019t have a chance for any expectations, just excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really excited to be part of a Doctor Who show,\u201d agrees Hopkins. \u201cI\u2019d watched it for years and always had fond memories of watching the show with family and friends \u2013 we love a Christmas special! However [it was] only when we started filming and groups of supportive Whovians started showing up outside the studio did I realise the enormity of it all!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d seen every bit of the post-2005 Doctor Who,\u201d says Ness. \u201cI was a huge fan, and a slightly different fan in that \u2013 being raised in America \u2013 I had no childhood connection with the original series, I came to that part later. I got to see it without memories or nostalgia fighting with the reboot (as all Americans do when we watch Star Trek).\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI always said that with Doctor Who, you\u2019re not actually engaging with the older series,\u201d he continues \u201cyou\u2019re engaging with people\u2019s memories of the older series, which is a different thing, a more challenging thing. But it\u2019s also what makes it such a great creative puzzle. And the reboot is so rich and deep and full of challenges and contradictions, it\u2019s an enormously rewarding place to set stories with real moral questions and grey areas. I loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter Capaldi with Katherine Kelly during Class\u2019 first episode (BBC)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n\u201cEverything revolved around Doctor Who,\u201d says Austin. \u201cThe show\u2019s legacy was looming over us the entire time. We literally had Peter Capaldi filming season 10 next door to us, not to mention getting to work with him briefly in episode one. It honestly felt quite imposing having the show\u2019s magnitude following us everywhere. It was both a blessing, and a curse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, Class was influenced by much more than just Doctor Who, as Bazalgette explains. \u201cWe viewed constantly through prep and built up a set of references. Some of the ones that stand out are Donnie Darko, The Thing, Gus Van Sant\u2019s Elephant, Super 8, and contemporary horror movies such as The Babadook [and] It Follows.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile [Class] came from the Doctor Who world, we all wanted it to have its own identity. I worked closely with the late and very wonderful designer Michael Pickwoad to establish that look. Michael had such a huge design influence on Doctor Who while he was on the show and it was such a pleasure working with him on Class.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key for us was that although set in London and shot in Cardiff, we didn\u2019t want to tie it down to one specific geographical location,\u201d continues Bazalgette. \u201cThe exterior school was glass, steel, very modern, could be found in any number of cities [while] the interior school was influenced by that US High School look from innumerable movies and TV shows.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given some of those influences, it\u2019s notable perhaps that Class was more popular in America. \u201cI\u2019ve always wondered if that\u2019s because most American shows set in schools are about finding yourself and having relationships and figuring out who you\u2019re going to turn into,\u201d says Ness, \u201cwhereas most British shows set in schools are basically about, \u2018Isn\u2019t school s***?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe British remember their school days with horror and misery, which I get,\u201d he continues. \u201cBut maybe we forget it\u2019s also the place where you make the most important first friendships and decisions and choices in your life. It\u2019s why it\u2019s such a compelling place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greg Austin (Charlie Smith) and Sophie Hopkins (April Maclean) recording for Big Finish stories of Class<\/span><\/figcaption> Big Finish<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n For the younger cast, Class represented a big step up in terms of their career \u2013 and, appropriately, something of a learning experience too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was totally new to me to work with the SFX and green screen,\u201d says Hopkins, \u201cwhich wasn\u2019t without its challenges. I remember trying to pull myself together and remain looking horribly frightened of a fearsome monster [that was actually] a tennis ball on a stick, or alternatively a person in an ill-fitting, skintight in the wrong places Kermit-the-Frog-greenscreen suit\u2026 actually, the latter does sound pretty terrifying, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDetained was a unique filming experience that I haven\u2019t encountered before or since,\u201d remembers Austin. \u201cIt was a bottle episode, and took place entirely in one location. We were in that blacked-out classroom for almost three weeks, doing high intensity, emotionally charged stuff; screaming, crying, fearing for our lives \u2013 you know how it goes. It was in that experience that I finally arrived at the realisation that I can do this. I can be an actor. It was a pretty big shift for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur relationships were so important,\u201d says Hopkins. \u201cI think it shows on screen how much we all loved each other! They\u2019re a great group of people, we balance each other out in the right ways and at the time we were all a really tight-knit group. Totally inseparable and it was a very happy set.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of my [scenes were] with Fady, who was a delight to spend time with. Honestly, he looks upon the world and each person he meets with a kindness, humour and excitement that\u2019s so very endearing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Katherine Kelly, Pooky Quesnel, Greg Austin and Jordan Renzo in Class series 1 (BBC)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n\u201cBeing the oldest of the five of us, I think I was the serious one in the group,\u201d she continues. \u201cIf I were to go back in time, I\u2019d have let go a bit more and stopped caring so much about what people thought. But then, maybe I\u2019d taken a little bit of April home with me!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough Class I gained some friends for life,\u201d says Renzo. \u201cWe were a wonderfully tight-knit group. Every night after shooting we would grab dinner, shoot the breeze. I have nothing but love and respect for everyone who worked on Class.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never had the kind of relationships on set as I had with Class,\u201d says Austin. \u201cFor us \u2018kids\u2019 it was our first time having the weight of a show entirely on us, and we very much looked up to Katherine Kelly as an experienced and respected actor. Having worked with her before on Mr. Selfridge, it was a real moment of growth getting to reframe our relationship on a new set, and I\u2019m genuinely so grateful for all her guidance and insight, she\u2019s truly wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n
After months of production, it was time for Class to begin \u2013 launching with a special premiere event in Cardiff. \u201cIt was a joy getting to present all our hard work and have it so readily appreciated by everyone at the premiere,\u201d remembers Austin. \u201cIt was a moment of real hope, excitement and payoff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Class concluded its BBC Three run with The Lost, which saw a final confrontation between the Coal Hill students and the Shadowkin \u2013 and featured the cliffhanger appearance of a Weeping Angel.<\/p>\n
After that, the series remained in limbo: its BBC One airing scheduled the following January and given a Monday night graveyard slot, its BBC America airing held to coincide with Doctor Who series 10 in April. Though the series was critically acclaimed, news of a return never arrived. When did they first start to realise that Class hadn\u2019t taken off as they might\u2019ve hoped?<\/p>\n
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