Gerard Eyre

In series 1, despite being loved by the children he taught, older teacher Ingham was not a fan or Eyre or his his enlightened, modernising ways. A mentor to a young Bert Middleton, Eyre introduced him to photography.

Eyre continues to teach and now considers his former mentee Bert as a close friend. He is conflicted over his feelings for Martha, who is married and legally unobtainable and loyal to the young man who sees him as a brother. He hopes a life changing adventure will help everything fall into place.

"I play Gerard Eyre, who is the younger of two local school teachers in the village. Eyre is a modernising man with modern and conscientious ideals that unfortunately come back to bite him when the war starts to break out [in series 1].

"I think it would be nice to go back to basics – a more simplistic time. I think we’ve become too condtioned in the 21st Century with commodities. Playing a teacher, I enjoyed thinking about creative ways I would have interacted with kids. In a way, it may have been easier to engage with children back then as there weren’t as many things to distract them as there are now."