Layton Williams and Charlie Wernham on Bad Education reunion: ‘It’s really emotional’

In the lead-up to Bad Education returning to BBC Three for a 10th anniversary special, Charlie Wernham and Layton Williams share their favourite moments from the show, and give us a sneak peek of what to expect in the upcoming Bad Education reboot.

When Charlie Wernham and Layton Williams first auditioned for the roles of Mitchell and Stephen in Bad Education, they were still in school. Over 10 years later, the actors have gone onto soap stardom and wowing on the West End respectively.

This December, they’re returning to the show that made them famous. When we first saw them on Bad Education in 2012, they were two of the unruly students of Abbey Grove’s Class K, taught by the ultimate bad teacher Alfie Wickers (Jack Whitehall).

In the upcoming reunion special, the show will come full circle. Mitchell and Stephen have become teachers themselves, trying to educate their own classes of teenage tearaways. As for Mr. Wickers, he is set to leave the show – but not before Class K has one last epic school reunion.

Jack told Charlie about his plans for Mr. Wickers’ exit from the show before the reboot at the start of 2022: “Jack said to me, ‘I want to move on after the reunion.’ The special is a hello to the new Class K and a goodbye to the old Class K, including Jack as well.’”

“I got the call from Jack,” Layton adds, “when I was in Hull and he was in Hollywood. LOL.

“Jack's been so generous,” says Layton of the show's creator, who will stay on as executive producer of Bad Education series four. “Obviously, he's busy being a superstar and can't commit to it. But to hand that baton over to me… I'm really appreciative of him giving me the chance. I hope I've done him proud.”

The reunion comes to BBC Three on December 15. It sees Alfie bring back Class K to speak to his students for a careers day. In true Bad Education style, the whole thing is a big excuse to have a secret massive party.

Class K has gone on to do some interesting things outside the school. As for Stephen, he has a secret – his acting career isn’t quite working out, so he’s had to take a job as a teacher at Abbey Grove.

How is he as a teacher? “I would say he's absolutely terrible, but he is fun,” says Layton. “He makes his class his minions! But he does love Class K with all his heart, even though he doesn’t show it.”

In the special, Mitchell also is forced into being a teacher due to a case of mistaken identity. Unsurprisingly, he’s not a great educator either. “He tries to be an adult,” says Charlie, “and it completely flops.”

After the special, the show will continue with series four, which will reveal all the misadventures the pair get into as teachers. Before that, viewers can look forward to one last Class K party.

According to Charlie and Layton, it felt like a party on set. “We filmed with everybody on the last week of the shoot…We were straight back to digging into each other,” remembers Layton. “It was like it was five minutes later.”

There were tears alongside the laughter. “It was lovely,” says Charlie, “because we hadn't seen each other for a long time. When we said goodbye to each other it was quite sad, like the end of an era.”

As for Layton, he starred in the final scene that Jack appears in on the show. “Me, Jack and Nikki [Runeckles, who plays Chantel] were in the last scene together. It’s a really emotional scene, but it was perfect.”

“I do recall my auditions,” remembers Layton of his first time playing the flamboyant Stephen. “I remember being in my school uniform. I was maybe 15 or 16, and I had to Google Jack Whitehall because I didn’t have a clue who he was!”

Before he knew it, he was on set. “It was a little bit of a blur,” says Layton. “To be honest, it just kind of happened. We were all just so excited.”

“We were quite loud,” Charlie adds, “we were excited youngsters in showbiz having a laugh for six to eight weeks.”

Though Layton had played Billy Elliot on the West End before being cast, he says the Bad Education crew at first had no idea of his performance skills. “They only found out because in between takes I can never stand still," the Everyone's Talking About Jamie star says “I’d be tapping or twirling or showing off in some way. They were like, ‘oh, you’re pretty good, how many backflips did you just do?’

“So I just slowly but surely started implementing these things into their brains and come season two, we've got to school play, come season three, we've got a musical number.”

As for Charlie, he started getting the best – and rudest – lines. “It was a lot easier back then though, because I had just come out of school. All of the childish put downs and playground banter was really fresh.”

Charlie’s favourite moments from filming the show were the more physical ones. “Throwing a pig off the roof [in series three, episode one] and hitting Ethan [Lawrence] who played Joe was really funny, especially as he was vegan!

“I also really enjoyed hurting Jack [Whitehall]! I got to throw a bucket of water over him, and hit him with a fire extinguisher. But he came back with a vengeance in the reunion. I was covered in bruises!”

The Bad Education reunion special is on Thursday 15 December at 9pm. Series four will be released in January 2023, and all previous episodes are streaming now on BBC iPlayer.