Country of origin United Kingdom Original network CBBC
CBBC HD | No. of episodes 20 | |
Original release 16 January (2015-01-16) – 8 December 2015 (2015-12-08) | ||
The third series of the British children's television series The Dumping Ground was broadcast from 16 January 2015 on CBBC and CBBC HD. The series follows the lives of the children living in the fictional children's care home of Ashdene Ridge, nicknamed by them "The Dumping Ground". It consists of twenty thirty-minute episodes, airing in two halves, and is the eleventh series in the Tracy Beaker franchise. It was confirmed that head writer, Elly Brewer, who has been the head writer for Tracy Beaker Returns and the previous The Dumping Ground series, will not be a part of the writing team for this series. The series aired from 16 January 2015 to 13 March 2015, and from 6 October 2015 to 8 December 2015.
Contents
Cast
All of the cast from the show's second series returned, with the exceptions of Daniel Pearson, the latter of which had left in the series 2 finale. Leanne Dunstan, who played Faith Davis, also left the series, but returned in episode 13 for a guest appearance. Chris Slater reprised his role as Frank Matthews in episode 20 "Refuge" for a guest appearance.
Casting
Casting calls confirmed that there would feature at least five new characters, including; twins Toni and Billie, played by Nelly and Gwen Currant; dog Mischief, which CBBC ran a competition for viewers to name it and is played by Sage; a disabled character called Finn, as well as Sasha and Ryan, played by Ruben Reuter, Annabelle Davis and Lewis Hamilton respectively. This series also saw the final appearance of Joe Maw as Johnny Taylor in the part 1 finale "Dragon Slayer".
Production
This series featured scripts from Emma Reeves, Richard Lazarus and Sophie Petzal, among others. Philip Gladwin has been confirmed as the show's new script editor.
Philip Leach took over from Simon Nelson as producer and Lis Steele continued her position as executive producer. Roberto Bangura, who was worked on shows such as Waterloo Road has joined the directing team. Other directors that directed the series include; Nigel Douglas, who previously worked on The Dumping Ground; and former Wolfblood director, Matthew Evans.
Production began on 16 June 2014, and was completed on 10 November 2014.