This article contains discussion of suicide that some readers may find distressing.
5's The Teacher returns for its third season, this time starring Victoria Hamilton as a woman at risk of losing everything after one of her students dies by suicide.
Helen Simpson, the new head of drama at private boarding school Cheetham Hall, is caught on camera rebuking pupil Dee, who is non-binary – something she has been struggling to understand – during detention. The incident occurs at a time when Dee is already having a particularly tough time and the following morning, Dee's body is found in their dorm room.
The footage was recorded by fellow student Cressida – a self-proclaimed ally who has had it in for Helen ever since she denied her request to move away from Shakespeare in favour of something more modern, and accused her of feigning concern for Dee to suit her own agenda.
Determined to punish her teacher, Cressida goes to extreme lengths, forcing Helen to fight like never before to stop her life from unravelling.
"As Helen delves deeper into Cressida's past, she uncovers a world of sadness and neglect. But has she learnt enough about Cressida to stop her final act of revenge?" reads the official synopsis.
"If you looked at episode 4 immediately after episode 1 you wouldn’t believe it," said Hamilton. "But that’s what happens in life, one tiny action or word can have a ripple effect."
Leo Dalton (Shak Benjamin) & Dee Rainford-Thomas (Ellis Jupiter) 5 The actor added that she hopes "the audience changes sides throughout the drama as well, as you start to understand more about why each of these characters is behaving in a certain way".
"That's when drama becomes really interesting, when you think you're on one person's side and suddenly you see another."
While season 3 of The Teacher is an entirely new narrative, it does have one thing in common with the first instalment: much of the filming took place abroad, despite it being set in England.
For more information about the filming locations, read on.
Where was The Teacher season 3 filmed?
The exterior of boarding school Cheetham Hall was actually a hotel called Fanhams Hall, in Hertfordshire.
But the interior scenes were all filmed in Vitoria-Gasteiz, in northern Spain, described by Steve Edge (Helen's estranged husband Terry) as "a very Spanish place with very few tourists".
"We were out there for two months... so all of the Basque Country was available to us, it was amazing," said Rochenda Sandall, who plays teacher Tessa Stewart.
- The Teacher season 3 director explains they didn't want to "pit groups against each other" in gender politics drama
She also revealed that the school was "an old church that was recommissioned and converted into an art college", which the team then transformed into Cheetham Hall.
"It didn't really look anything like my school," she laughed.
The Samaritans are also available 24/7 if you need to talk. You can contact them for free by calling 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or head to the website to find your nearest branch.
The Teacher season 3 premieres on 5 at 9pm on Monday 30 March. The remaining three episodes will air across three consecutive nights. All episodes will also be available to stream from 10pm.
Add The Teacher to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.
Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
0 Comments