Chris could be on his way out as Steph returns

Chris could be on his way out as Steph returns
Chris could be on his way out as Steph returns (Image credit: Shed Productions)

CCTV: a blessing or a curse? There’s no doubt what Deputy Head Chris thinks after his experiment with the technology goes disastrously wrong in an episode that sees the welcome return of Steph Haydock (Denise Welch). Chris thinks putting CCTV in the classrooms is a good idea and launches a trial scheme. But the staff aren’t happy about having cameras watching them work and the pupils go ballistic when they find out the staff room hasn’t been wired up for public scrutiny. Jonah is outraged by the hypocrisy and comes up with a plan to teach Chris a lesson. But it leads to him discovering that Chris and Jess had a one-night stand and suddenly Chris doesn’t like having cameras everywhere. Can he still keep Karen out of the picture? Thanks to Ruby, everyone’s soon in the picture regarding Grantly’s struggle at home to cope with his wife Fleur (guest star Lorraine Cheshire) and her dementia. It’s former colleague, Steph, who turns up and gently helps stubborn Grantly make a heartbreaking decision. Meanwhile, Ruby faces her own heartbreak when Janeece asks for her baby daughter back. Ruby won’t give up the baby, but that doesn’t stop Janeece. Ruby is hit by the painful truth that she shouldn’t keep a baby from a mother who clearly loves her and wants her.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.