First
Degree
We
Love Wales because it is such a sexy and intelligent nation.
And
now it boasts one of the sexiest and most intelligent places on
the planet.
It's
state-of-the-art, sexy and you can't get into it... unless you're
the best, the very best!
But
this is no night club - it's 21st century university Bay College.
Fast,
furious and extraordinarily seductive; if there's one thing 大象传媒
Wales' new cutting edge drama First Degree promises, it's to spice
up our TV screens.
The
strictly post-watershed voyeuristic peek into saucy student life
hits screens at the start of the new college year, with a body of
fresh and sexy new faces.
The campus of Bay College - created for the series using a transformed
industrial warehouse outside Newport and the exterior of Cardiff
Bay's NCM Building - is one of a chain of high-tech media colleges
owned and run by an enigmatic entrepreneur based in Sacramento,
California - The Founder.
Bay College offers golden opportunities to the country's top new
media talent.
The
education is free but the whizz-kids, who have access to the best
facilities money can buy, have to turn imagination into commercially
viable ideas to buy their way out of the institution, effectively
selling their souls.
A Big
Brother-style virtual eye roves to every corner of the campus 24
hours a day, tracking student movements, while lecturers control
their destinies by hatching underhand plots.
Using
split screens to double and even triple the action for viewers at
home, First Degree was penned by former 大象传媒 Wales script editor
Ben Teasdale and directed by Bill Broomfield, who made his directing
debut on the racy 大象传媒 2W series Not Getting Any.
The
first extended episode - viewers on digital TV service 大象传媒 2W will
get an exclusive run of nine consecutive nights, while 大象传媒 ONE Wales
viewers get a weekly Monday night fix - sees the college's potential
new blood compete for a coveted place.
The
hopefuls include West Walian farmer's son Gethin (Adam Randall from
Church Village); genius film-maker Steffan (Adam Allfrey, Dream
Team); and Rachel (TV newcomer Jade Capstick), a self-taught digital
artist who developed her talents using PCs in an office she once
cleaned.
Tattooed
Sion (Nicholas Aaron from Pontardawe, Swansea, Band of Brothers),
who is just as skilled on a skateboard as at solving technical problems;
Rehema (Salima Saxton), who hides her true wild child colours beneath
traditional Asian clothes, and spoiled rich kid Johanna (Caroline
Hayes, Doctors), a maths brain box who is as determined to fail
as the others are to succeed, are also in the race for a place.
Principal
Maurice (John G Moraitis) and course leaders Ioan (Phil Reid who
grew up in Corris, near Dolgellau and Aberystwyth) and Sarah (Anita
Reynolds from Cardiff) promise them the toughest two days of their
young lives in an IT boot camp designed to weed the techno-geeks
from the brilliant dreamers and schemers.
And
watching over them is the all-seeing Founder, played by Victor Spinetti,
originally from Cwm, Monmouthshire, who made his name in the Beatles
films A Hard Day's Night and Help.
But the real excitement starts after dark, when the second-year
students come out to play, with predatory femme fatale Maddy (Amanda
Rawnsley from Cardiff), Australian good-time girl Taz (Sarah Farooqui),
Rehema's spivvy, drug-snorting brother Jay (Abhin Galeya) and flamboyant,
cross-dressing Cookie (Jonjo O'Neill) checking out the hot new talent.
One
of the lucky freshers even gets an explicit induction into Bay College
life across a computer desk.
Gripped
already? If you need more, fans can log onto First Degree's revolutionary
web site,
- a whole intranet devoted to the College, its students and all
the gossip surrounding it.
Besides
filming for First Degree, special CCTV cameras have been secretly
watching to give even juicier moments exclusively on the web site.
Visitors
can even hack in as the all-seeing Founder to access secret student
files, send emails to characters and plant malicious rumours.
And
- in 大象传媒 Wales's first interactive web drama to run alongside the
TV show - the characters will reply.
大象传媒
Wales Head of Drama, Matthew Robinson, says: "First Degree
will be high quality, addressing contemporary issues, and we're
hoping it appeals to a broad audience.
"It's
written by a talented new writer, Ben Teasdale, and is a showcase
for fresh, new acting talent to appear on screen.
"The
students have to mortgage their lives, selling their souls to the
college, and their future creativity goes back into the organisation.
"That's
the theme, but against that there are the loves, lives and longings
of people entering adulthood - it's a heady mixture of sex, drugs
and rock and roll."
First
Degree starts Monday 7 October, 大象传媒 2W and 大象传媒 ONE Wales.
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