About Joe Casey

If Lindon represents the sharp-suited professional edge of the senior management team, then Joe is the laid-back alternative. As a result, many of the staff seek him out to help solve issues as they feel he is a little more 360° in his understanding of a situation. His husband, Mike, is a police officer and has been supportive of Joe taking on more, especially because he so believes in the results. Joe and Mike are foster parents to brothers, Dwayne and Zayne, who have been with them for 18 months now and they’re a tight family unit – or getting there.

James Baxter Q&A

Welcome to Waterloo Road! How has it been to be part of the new series?

It's been amazing, really, really cool. Everyone is so lovely and the ethos within the company is just brilliant. I mean the show is so popular and it's a lovely place to come to work. I can’t really call It work to be honest, you know, we come in, do the filming, have a laugh and go home. It's really good.

Tell us about your character Joe?

I play Joe Casey, he is one of the deputy heads of the school. Joe comes from a pastoral teaching background, so he seems to be very much the teacher who's sort of on a level with the kids. He's very approachable and I think sometimes that can be to his detriment because I think they naturally sometimes take a little bit of an advantage of his soft side. He also really loves tea and drinks a lot of it. That wasn't in the script. That was just me wanting tea, so I sort of built that in.

Joe is deputy alongside Lindon. Is there any rivalry between them?

Yeah, there is a little bit of rivalry between them. I think the rivalry is more on Lindon’s side. I think because of their teaching styles they naturally rub up against each other. Like I said, Joe, very much comes from a pastoral background. He's very patient and understanding with the kids, whereas Lindon is more of a disciplinarian, and a lot stricter. I think depending on the situation, both of those attributes for teaching have their advantages. And you know, what's interesting about it is you get moments where they really come together and solve problems better than they do separately. I think it's a really nice dynamic for two characters.

Can you tell us what it was like working with the other cast members?

They’re a dream. I mean, genuinely, it's such a lovely place to come to work. And everyone says this on jobs, “like it's one big family” but it genuinely feels like that. Everyone's got each other's backs. Naturally, when you spend so much time with people, you do sometimes bring your own personal life into work and what's lovely is that it feels like a real safety net, and it's an open place to work and there's no judgement from anybody. It's brilliant. But that I think is testament to Cameron and the production team because it does trickle down. They just created a really lovely environment at work, which is really important now, I think, because let's be honest, it's a bit rubbish out there sometimes. Not the acting industry, just the news. It’s depressing.

Were there any standout, or funny moments on set that you can tell us about. Were there any pranksters?

I’m definitely that person. What can I say? I mean we're always laughing. To be honest we laugh that much, I mean we are professional and we get the job done, but there’s almost too much to mention, there's always stuff going on. All the time.

Can you tell us about your own school days, and what that was like?

I really enjoyed school, not at the time, no one likes getting up and going to school do they? Let's be real. But in hindsight, which is a beautiful thing, it was class, I had a very, very good time. I basically had a laugh with my mates for five years.

The school dinners were a bit crap. We were allowed out and there was a butcher's over the road, it isn't there anymore, probably for health and safety reasons but it sold dipped buns, and that was the bread bun with pudding and stuffing, dipped in gravy, and it was 15 pence, so that tells you. Now I sound like a Victorian, I'm only 32, it wasn't that long ago, but on a nutritional aspect, it was shocking. There was also a fish and chip shop next door and I would say 80% of the students were eating kebab meat most days in the afternoon.