New school drama for C4 8pm slot

Channel 4 is making a return to 8pm week-night drama by commissioning The ABC.

Set in a multicultural school, The Arnold Braithwaite College in Lancashire, the series offers a funny and revealing insight into the daily drama of the teachers, teenagers and families whose lives and cultures collide in the large Northern comprehensive, headed up by new head teacher Emma Hussein.

The ABC is written by Ayub Khan Din (East is East) and produced by The Forge.

Jay Hunt, Channel 4 Chief Creative Officer, says: “Our Educating … franchise has captured the warmth, humour and challenges that exist every day in schools up and down the country and has produced some of the most compelling television of the year. Ayub has created a drama which has all of these in abundance, with an array of characters audiences will love spending time with.”

Writer Ayub Khan Din says: “It’s been an exhilarating assignment to create a drama set in an urban Lancashire school where staff and pupils negotiate the cultural melting pot that is contemporary Britain. It has given me the opportunity to tell stories with heart and humour about the teenagers, their teachers and their families which are both specific to our times yet universal in their appeal.”

Production of The ABC is due to start in 2015, with the number of hour-long episodes to be confirmed at a later date.