Pupils hospitalised after copying Waterloo Road
Six teenagers were rushed to hospital after copying Wednesday night's episode of Waterloo Road. The five girls and one boy, aged 14 and 15, from a school in Aldridge, West Midlands reportedly brewed up a deadly booze cocktail of ethanol after watching the programme. Three ambulances were sent to the school at 2pm on Thursday - less than 24 hours after the episode aired - and the pupils were admitted to hospital suffering from ethanol poisoning. They later confessed they'd picked up the idea from Waterloo Road. In the episode, Danielle Harker, played by Lucy Dixon, becomes seriously ill after drinking a similar chemical concoction. Before the programme aired, Lucy Dixon (pictured) told What's on TV: "It really shows the bad part of drinking. My aim was not to make it look like she was having fun - I wanted to show the danger of drinking an excessive amount of alcohol. "She has a really terrible time. Danielle learns the hard way and I hope people learn from it. I don't want anyone who watches it to go through what my character goes through." The medical director of West Midlands Ambulance Service, Dr Roger Cooke, reminded would-be bootleggers: "Ethanol is alcohol in it purest form - it is exceptionally strong and dangerous to consume and is very different to alcohol sold in licensed premises. "Even a small amount of ethanol has the potential to kill because of its potency." The pupils are currently recovering from the incident. For Lucy's full interview about the episode click here.
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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.