4 O'Clock Club

4 O'Clock Club
Genre	Children's-drama
Created by	CBBC In-House, Paul Rose and Ben 'Doc Brown' Smith
Starring	Khalil Madovi Tom Rolinson Oscar Lloyd (Series 1-3) Sade Malone Ruby Morgan Alana Thornton (Series 1-3) Dystin Johnson Doc Brown (Series 1-3) Laura Aikman (Series 1-3) Jason Callender (Series 2-) Simon Lowe (Series 2-) Akai Osei (Series 3-) Layton Blake (Series 3-) Chloe Davison (Series 3-) Grace McIntosh (Series 3-) Daniel Kerr (Series 3-) Lewis Brindley (Series 3-) Liz Hume-Dawson
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	39 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	Connal Orton
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	CBBC BBC HD
Release	13 January 2012 (2012-01-13) – present

4 O'Clock Club is a BAFTA-nominated British children's television series, which premiered on 13 January 2012 on CBBC and BBC HD. A second series began airing on 4 January 2013 and the popularity of the show saw it returning for a third series which premiered on 20 December 2013, with a fourth having been confirmed.

Background

ScreenTerrier held auditions for the 4 O'Clock Club in March 2011, the show being publicly announced in April, the first episode transmitted in January 2012, with the series finishing at the end of March later that year.

It was announced in December 2013 that the third series was going to be premiered on iPlayer before it's air date. Victoria Jaye, cead of TV content for BBC iPlayer, said: "We're incredibly excited that 4 O'Clock Club will be the first Children’s series to premiere on BBC iPlayer. As an established comedy drama in the CBBC schedule, the iPlayer premiere will give fans the chance to enjoy their favourite programme whenever and wherever they want to." "Over the last year, we've seen a 63 per cent growth in consumption of Children’s content on iPlayer, which demonstrates iPlayer’s important role as a complementary discovery platform for our broadcast programmes." Cheryl Taylor, Controller of CBBC, said: "CBBC is the most watched children’s channel in the UK for its respective target audience and we’re proud to continue to deliver high-quality programmes in a way that suits our audience." "Viewers are in for a treat with the best series yet of award-winning 4 O’Clock Club as we welcome Josh and friends back for more melodious mischief."

Plot

The first series centers on Josh Carter, a pupil at Elmsbury High, and older brother Nathan, who works as a teacher there. Josh Carter is portrayed as a laid back school kid trying to keep his cool reputation. In series two, Nathan Carter, Josh's brother, leaves school and is replaced by Dexter Harris. Dexter becomes Josh and his mother's new lodger, taking Josh's room as a result. As such, Josh antagonizes Dexter throughout the series until he accepts his presence and labels him as an "honorary Carter brother". The third series features Nathan's proposal and marriage to Miss Poppy and Josh is forced to share his room with his annoying younger cousin, Nero. When the school burns down due to an issue with candles, Elmsberry is merged with another school, Fowlmere, where Mr. Bell threatened to send the students in the 4 O'Clock Club in series 2 .

Cast

Elmsbury

Teachers

• Jeff Thorne (Myles Keogh) – Mr. Thorne was a sports coach at Elmsbury and is rather disliked by many of the teachers due to his rather strict and unfair way of teaching. He was the secondary antagonist in the second series.

• Nathan Carter (Doc Brown) – Nathan is Josh's brother and a former rapper. He worked at Elmsbury High as an English teacher as well as running the 4 O'Clock Club, the after-school detention class. At the end of his first year at Elmsbury, he was made "Teacher of the Year" by Byron. He had a crush on fellow teacher Miss Poppy throughout the first series, and finally builds up the courage to ask her out in the second series. However, while she accepts, she is unable to carry on due to her role as "Head of Year",requiring a heavy workload. Following this, Nathan took up a post in Scotland as part of a teacher exchange program. He returns in the season finale of the second series to Elmsbury, in a battle to overcome Bell and to help stop his Project Zenith to send half of Elmsbury's pupils to Fowlmere, and finally kisses Melanie. In the Series 3 premiere, he proposes to Melanie, to which she gladly accepts. It is confirmed that Nathan no longer works at Elmsbury, after being told by Bell that he is not welcome anymore. The reason is unknown. In "Wedding", he leaves the series.

• Dexter Harris (Jason Callender) – Dexter is a new teacher at Elmsbury who begins to appear as a main character from episode Head of Year onwards. He is Miss Poppy's music assistant. At first, he was considered quite clumsy and he dreams of becoming teacher of the year like Nathan in series 2. He becomes Josh and his mother's new lodger after Nathan leaves for Scotland, which takes Josh a while to get used to. In the third series, he moves out of the Carter apartment but not far away as it seems, now located across the hall from them.

• Crispin Bell (Simon Lowe) – Mr. Bell is the new stern headmaster at Elmsbury, later the co-head teacher of Elmsmere. He turns the school into an academy and is far stricter with many of the teachers. He flees after Project Zenith's failure to lure the parents of the students to relocate to Fowlmere. However, he returns in the third series, still in his position as head teacher, starting things off by being a "scrooge" and cancelling Christmas.

• Melanie Carter-Poppy (Laura Aikman) – Melanie, usually referred to as Mel, was a music teacher at Elmsbury and the love interest of Nathan. She kisses Nathan in the second series finale. At the beginning of the third series, she marries Nathan.

• Anita Andress (Liz Hume-Dawson) – Miss Andress is a teacher at Elmsbury. She was made Assistant Head in the second series. She is strict and disapproves of Nathan. She leaves in series 3 to teach at another school where Ryan and Molly now go. In the series finale of series 3, Ms Andress is the new senior head of teaching in Elmsmere.

• Mr Byron (Steve Huison) – Mr. Byron was the headmaster of Elmsbury in the first series. He was usually hard to please and did not accept Nathan at first, due to his behavior at school. He eventually did – making him "Teacher of the Year" in the series finale. He was referred by Josh, Nathan, and his friends while he was at school as "BOGOF" (when Byron asks Nathan about this name, Nathan pretends it means 'Buy One Get One Free', as Byron seems to like this; however, it really means 'bog off'). Miss Poppy mentioned in the second series that Byron had left but that nobody knows why, and she had heard from someone that he went to work with unprivileged kids in South America. He was mentioned in Series 3 by Ash, after hearing a rumour by a dinner lady that he would be a Santa Claus, but the rumor turned out to be false.

Pupils

• Rachel (Lauren McQueen) – Rachel appears in Valentine's Day, Choir, Radio, Quiche as Josh's crush.

• Josie (Eleanor O'Brien)- Josie appears as Rachel (Josh's crush)'s best friend in Valentine's Day.

• Natalie Harlow (Beth Chaplow) is a kind and sensible student who appears in Valentine's Day. Ryan receives a love letter he thinks she wrote, when it was actually a friend of Ash's who wrote it. She was also in the School Council episode in Series One and she appears in Gold, Quiche and Prefects.

• Mia (Eleni Foskett) – Mia is a pupil at Elmsbury who ties on to the camping trip.

• Josh Carter (Khalil Madovi) – Josh is a pupil at Elmsbury where his brother was a teacher throughout the first series. He makes no secret of his desire to become a rapper. He uses the alias "J- Carter" and "J-Hyphen" as a stage name. He is shown to be at times selfish and creates trouble in the school. He also has a crush on Rachel.

• Ryan Wood (Oscar Lloyd) – Ryan is one of Josh's best friends who is commonly referred to as a geek and nerd, causing him to be easily manipulated by others. He is consistently teased by Ash in particular. He is one of the students who constantly turns up in detention. He is seen to be quite unnerved around Molly, though the two are often seen as quite close, as shown in School Trip. In Merger, he leaves the series to go to a different school after Elmsbury burns down.

• Ashley 'Ash' Newman (Tom Rolinson) – Ash is another of Josh's friends, who more frequently gets into trouble and lands into detention. He constantly teases Ryan and is displayed as vain and stupid. He is shown to have a low sense of personal hygiene, which is shown in the first episode of the second series when he fishes a sticky blond wig out of a bin. He has a crush on Zoe-Marie which is only shown in a few episodes.

• Agness Addo (Sade Malone) – Agness is a pupil at Elmsbury High who shows a lighter tone in behavior and is always willing to help others, though she still turns up in detention. In one episode, she is shown having to leave school during the day to look after her younger siblings.

• Zoe-Marie Ingham (Ruby Morgan) – Zoe-Marie talks very fast and turns up in detention regularly. She is shown as "in-academic" throughout, but is shown to be a good singer in Sweets.

• Darius Fuck (Adam Kavanagh) – Darius is the captain of the basketball team at Elmsbury. In Fight, he threatens to beat Josh up because Nathan puts him into detention for assuming he broke the mirror of Mr. Byron's car (which was actually Ryan's doing). He becomes friends with Ryan and Ash, however.

• Molly Finnegan (Alana Thornton) – Molly is a pupil at Elmsbury High who also turns up in detention regularly. She is quite loud and can be rude. In the second series, she changes her personal appearance in the sense that she dresses up as a goth, which comes to the surprise of some of the other students, and also lands her in detention almost instantly. In 'Merger' she changes back to her old appearance from series 1 despite still being a goth from the preceding episodes of the series.

Fowlmere

Teachers

• Aine O'Brien (Sally Ann Matthews) - Mrs. O'Brien is the headteacher
• Graham Nunn (Dan Wright) - Mr. Nunn is a P.E teacher.
• Emma Parkwood (Sophia Di Martino) - Mrs. Parkwood is a music teacher

Pupils

• Nero Johnson (Akai Osei) - Nero is Josh and Nathan's cousin, and he first appeared in Wedding. Nero doesn't leave Josh alone because his parents fell out. He and his mother have been constantly moving about, staying at houses of his mother's friends. After Nathan gets married, Nathan moves out while Mrs. Carter speaks with Josh, telling that Nero and his mother will have to stay at their flat, annoying Josh yet again. Josh initially pities Nero, but after learning about his past, tries to get along with him. Nero is the only character who did not go to Elmsbury or Fowlmere.
• Isaac Rodgers (Layton Blake) - Isaac is one of the students from Fowlmere. He is shown to take things too seriously like Ryan did. But is more tougher and can get very angry and stress out in some situations.
• Fleur Murphy (Chloe Davison) - Fleur is one of the pupils from Fowlmere. Fleur is Eleeshas best friend.
• Eleesha Rahad (Grace McIntosh) - Eleesha is one of the pupils from Fowlmere. Eleesha is Fleurs best friend but they had an argument in 'Choir'.
• Eli Grant (Daniel Kerr) - Eli is one of the pupils from Fowlmere. His character is very similar to Ash but he is nicer to Owen than Ash was to Ryan.
• Owen Garland (Lewis Brindley) - Owen is one of the pupils from Fowlmere. He is very similar to Ryan.
• Kelly Liveset (Laura Black) - Kelly is a pupil at Fowlmere Manor who turns up in detention regularly. She is friends with Isaac, but can be cunning to seek revenge on those she doesn't like. Kelly will debut in series 4.

Nero, Eli and Owen have become best friends just like Josh, Ash and Ryan were. Nero has become the rap artist Josh was. Eli has become the jokester Ash was. Owen became the serious voice of reason Ryan was.

Others

• Elliott Harris (Delroy Brown) – Elliot is Dexter's father who assesses Dexter's role at Elmsbury when he appears in Dexter's Dad. Dexter had previously lied to him that he was assistant head teacher, but Elliott claims that he had his suspicions all along when he reveals the truth. He was also Dexter's head master in his school.
• Mrs Carter (Dystin Johnson) – Mrs. Carter is Josh's mother. She struggles to pay the bills so in series 1 Nathan helps out but when he leaves sho rent out Josh's room to Dexter.
• Essa Johnson (Kerry Stacey) - Bebe is Nero's mother. She also is the receptionist at Elsmere to Nero's dismay.

Broadcast

4 O'Clock Club premiered in Canada in early 2013 on BBC Kids.

Production

The show is filmed in and around Stockport, Manchester. Constructed raps are featured in every episode, usually relating to the current situation. As such, the series takes a musical style.

Episodes

Main article: List of 4 O'Clock Club episodes

Reception

Geoff Ellis of Radio Times said: "Sibling rivalry is the big theme of this new comedy drama about brothers Nathan and Josh who go to the same school. Both of them are expert rappers, but the twist is that Nathan is a teacher and Josh is a pupil. While Josh dreams of making it in the music business, Nathan is determined to have his say and try to stop his young brother from making the same mistakes he did."

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Result
2012	Children's BAFTA	Best Comedy	Won
		Best Children's Programme	Won

External links

• 4 O'Clock Club at BBC Online
• 4 O'Clock Club at IMDb