'The Lost Child'*

The Lost Child is a book written by _________________ which was serialised in The Daily Mail in early 2009. They featured extracts from the book, the son's response to the book, the mother's justification for writing and publishing the book, experts' opinions, public opinions and further comments.

I found that the son's POV was quite simillar to that of my peers... TBC

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1160085/Mum-did-obscene-The-son-Julie-Myerson-kicked-smoking-pot-tells-story.html

Comparison of Drug Representations in TV Dramas

‘90210’
Drugs are represented as serious with stresses on the punishments in the episode. Further episodes show that Adrianna gets her life back on track easily which is pretty unrealistic. But the portrayal of how drugs can ruin a life is realistic, it also shows that adults aren't needed to kick a drug habit (as seen in Waterloo Road). This demonstrates a high level of responsibility and teenagers can relate to certain situations.

‘Skins’
Despite its far-fetched, pushing boundaries approach, Skins is quite realistic. Teenagers can remember, or at least relate to, situations shown and the characters are approachable in a way that many teenagers aren't in TV dramas.

‘The OC’
The OC glosses over drug use immensely and is therefore the most unrealistic in its approach. There is no drug use actually shown on screen it is only implied, and then the effects are too OTT for anyone to relate to.

'Waterloo Road'
Waterloo Road plays along the storyline that only adults are able to (or responsible enough) to help with drugs. They also see it as an inherently bad habit which isn't present within many pupils, using the character you would least expect (and would never do it in real life) to be the person using drugs. This makes it unrealistic as the characters who are involved in the storyline are not believable as ever wanting to use drugs.

Drugs in 'Waterloo Road' (4.5)

In episode 5 of series 4 of 'Waterloo Road' there were 81 references to drugs verbally or through images. Below are some points I picked out/quotes to show the attitude of the show towards drugs:

- Banner of "Waterloo Road says no to drugs" outside was changed to"Waterloo Road says more drugs please"
- "Are you ready for the drugs awareness day?"
- "It's not like we're trying to label the kids as a bunch of dopeheads"
- Marley (head boy) lights up a 'spliff' with paper
- "Treating us like junkies, for what, a bit of a smoke at the weekend?"
- Gotta go to this drgs thingy"
- "Don't want messages like this [banner] going out to the pupils do ya?"
- Secret taker"
- "Right rebel"
- Drugs & alcohol awareness leaflets
- Drugs awareness campaign
- Drugs education classes
- "Life of crime"
- "The only people having fun with drugs are the dealers"
- Sting of teacher with drugs
- Cheek swabs
- "When you live with someone who gets off their face every night, you'll see"
- "they'll pack you off to drugs awareness sessions"
- "Legalise Drugs Now" picture with teacher holding banner (in 70sish)
- Questioning Steph (French teacher) about drugs
- Banner at the end (55mins)

Drugs in '90210'

- Drugs are mentioned at the end of the catch up clip which starts the show "welcome to the big league" (drug dealer to Adrianna)
- 4:34 Adrianna putting drops into eyes when Naomi comes over to her
- 5 mins Naomi implies Adrianna has a drug problem (a continuation of what had been building up from the previous episode)
- Naomi says "I hear thing, I know things" to Adrianna when confronting her
- 7:30ish Adrianna messing up lines when practising for her audition, 7:36 shows her using cocaine to settle her nerves

• She takes it from the lipstick container & wipes it over her teeth after sniffing it
• She has no problem doing her lines after she's taken drugs

- 13:47 Adrianna in a car when her mother says she's celebrating getting her film part, it's assumed that she's doing drugs
- 21:10ish Kimberly says to a guy in detention "so, detention, bad kids...any idea where a girl can score some party favours?"
- 21:46 Naomi picks lipstick case out of Adrianna's bag

• Find out Naomi used to do drugs - "I know this lipstick container" to which Adrianna replies "I know, it was yours"

- 22 mins Naomi says "I experimented then I stopped"
- 22:25ish police do a drugs search
- 22:34 Adrianna admits to Naomi "You're right, I'm using but it's not like I am addicted, I can stop whenever I want, I'm just like under so much pressure from my mum..." when the search starts
- 22:46 Cops pull weed from a guy's locker

- 22:50 Adrianna panics and says "I'm gonna get busted, I'm gonna get kicked out of school, I'm gonna lose the movie, I'm gonna lose everything"
- Naomi takes the drugs from Adrianna to save her friend
- 23:15 Shows Naomi putting drugs down the toilet and flushing before police come in

• See Naomi being led away in cuffs to a car

- 22:33 Cop says to Harry "the coke was in the lipstick"
- Harry defends drugs bust by saying "I don't want drugs on this campus"
- Harry accuses Ryan Matthews of defending drug dealers when he said Harry's actions were a bit extreme
- Harry said (on the students having rights) "they don't have the right to bring drugs to campus"
- Annie saw what happened and said "those weren't her drugs Ethan"
- Adrianna talks about the C & C Club when Annie & Ethan confront her, which turns out to be the cocaine & champagne club, which Naomi initiated her into
- According to Ethan, Naomi "realised how stupid it [taking drugs] was"
- Naomi's mum raids her room to look for drugs
- Naomi sees her dad as being able to "make it [drug charges] go away " with money
- 27:20 Naomi, whne talking to Adrianna, who gets upset, says "hey, maybe it [rehab] coudl be a good career move"
- Scripting reveals drugs make it harder to go to collage, get a job & likely to go to jail/juvenile detention
- Undercover cop (Kimberly) being used to try and catch a dealer or supplier
- 39:24 At the end see Adrianna on the floor with paramedics, intercut with Naomi leaving a message on Adrianna's phone, as Adrianna had overdosed
- Episode ends with Naomi saying (in a message to Adrianna) "you're dead to me"

Drugs in 'The OC'

There's really not that many drugs in The OC even though I picked an episode where they are mentioned.

They come mostly towards the end (31 mins) when Trey takes what is assumed to be cocaine using his key, which had been hidden down the side of the sofa. The shot is cut before you can see him taking it, it's assumed he does before he attempts to rape Marissa. There's no focus on teh drugs as it's a clean cut US teen drama.

Institutional Information

90210
Episode: "Hollywood Forever" (series 1.7)
Broadcast date & time: 02/03/09 at 9pm
Channel: E4
American - sold to UK, Australia (cancelled after 4 episodes), India, Ireland & Finland

Skins
Episode: "Chris" (series 1.4)
Broadcast date & time: 15/02/07 at 10pm
Channel: E4
British - sold to Ireland, Australia, France, New Zealand, USA

The OC
Episode: "The return of the Nana" (Series 2.20)
Broadcast date & time: 31/05/05 at 8pm
Channel: C4
American - sold to Britain, Canada, Australia

Waterloo Road
Episode: 45 (Series 4.5)
Broadcast date & time: 04/02/09 at 8pm
Channel: BBC1
British

All dates, times & channels UK

Representation

Representation of the following is important and must be accurate:

• Gender
• Ethnicity
• NHS & hospital management plus other services

It must be challenging and questioning to the audience too