Top of the class

Walking onto the school grounds of what was once the Burnham Park Academy in Slough, I’m instantly transported back to my own secondary school days in what feels like a cinematic flashback. The resemblance of where I spent some of my formative years is striking, and certainly brings back memories. Good and bad.

The 60s architecture, the lockers, and the sounds of shoes screeching and echoing against the sports hall floor are all too familiar. I’m not sure if the reason I’m sweating is that it’s a very hot day in June (2021) or if those school memories are coming back to haunt me. My iced coffee offers some release.

Abandoned in 2019, this site is currently alive with activity, having been transformed into Truham Grammar School for Boys, the primary setting of Netflix’s adaptation of the popular webcomic, Heartstopper.

Attitude has been invited for an exclusive on-set visit of what is one of the streaming network’s key releases of 2022. After meeting my guide for the day, I’m introduced to lead actor Kit Connor, who plays rugby lad Nick Nelson, and looks remarkably like his comicbook counterpart. He marvels at being in the unique position of having a visual reference for his character, rather than just a written description. “I had drawings of this character; we’ve seen him from every angle. I definitely had something to base it off.”

Inside the sports hall, I meet Heartstopper creator Alice Oseman. In hushed tones in between takes, we discuss how filming — now in its final days — has gone and the journey from the webcomic’s humble origins in 2016.

“I think that doing Heartstopper was one of the most rewarding jobs I’ve ever done”
— Kit

“When it started it was literally just a passion project,” Alice says, somewhat incredulously. “I didn’t make any money out of it; I was just uploading it for free online and it’s grown so much since then, and now it’s a TV show. It’s really weird.”

Heartstopper tells the story of Charlie Spring, played by Joe Locke, and Nick Nelson as they become friends and an unexpected relationship blossoms between them. Interestingly, Charlie and Nick actually began life as secondary characters in another of Alice’s works, Solitaire, which is set after Heartstopper.

Alice explains the approach to the chronology: “We don’t really learn much about their lives outside of the scope of the narrator, who is Charlie’s sister [Tori]. I just really loved them as characters, and I felt like there was