Tim Loane made one series that mattered, Teachers, and built it out of small things: a report deadline, a bet, a lie about how the lesson went. Since then he has been a dependable writer on other people's programmes, which is a different job.
Fi1m perspective
Simon arrives at Summerdown on a bicycle with a cigarette already lit, avoids Clare whenever she has paperwork for him, and lies to everyone about how his lessons went. That is Tim Loane's idea of a leading man, and it is the whole of Teachers (2001) in one entrance. The staff are worse behaved than the children and the programme takes their side anyway. Loane has said, "Part of Simon is always in me, or part of me is always in Simon," and you can believe it. The character is written from the inside, by someone who knows which excuse he would reach for first.
He came to television sideways. Loane co-founded Tinderbox Theatre Company in Belfast in 1988 and was its joint artistic director until 1996, and by his own account he learned scriptwriting by reading a great many other people's scripts. Then came a short, Dance Lexie Dance (1996), episodes of Ballykissangel, and Teachers, his first series commission, which ran from 2001 to 2004. The theatre years show in the work. The staffroom is an ensemble in the proper sense: Penny, Liz and Carol are funnier than the men and more tired, and the episodes turn on an inspection, a fancied colleague, a bet, rather than on plot.
The first two series are close to excellent. The writing room was large, with Charlie Martin, Julie Rutterford, Loane himself and half a dozen others sharing credits, and the voice stayed even, which is the creator's job and the hardest part of it. We watched Simon assure Clare that a lesson had gone well when it plainly had not, and felt a small, unwelcome flush of recognition; most of us have told that lie, and the show knows we have. The programme went off in the second half of its run, and with so many names on the scripts it is hard to say whose fault that was. Andrew Lincoln took a turn directing, which tells you how far Teachers had become his rather than its creator's.
Since then Loane has mostly written for series he did not create: Proof (2004), a four-part conspiracy thriller for RTÉ; Minder (2009); Casualty; Red Rock; series two and three of Versailles; Das Boot; the third series of Marcella. We have not reviewed them and will not pretend to a view. The list is worth noticing all the same. A writer who started with a comprehensive school and a bicycle has spent much of his working life at the court of Louis XIV and inside a U-boat.
He is now co-creator of Alice (2026), a six-part series about the film pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché, and it is the first series he has created since Teachers. We would like to see whether the man who wrote Simon can still be found in it.
Biography
Tim Loane is a writer, director and actor from Northern Ireland. He co-founded the Tinderbox Theatre Company in Belfast in 1988 and served as its joint artistic director until 1996. He holds a degree in psychology from Queen's University Belfast.
Loane created the Channel 4 comedy-drama series Teachers (2001–2004) and was its lead writer for the first season. His other screenwriting credits include episodes of Ballykissangel, Casualty, Minder, Red Rock, Versailles and Marcella, as well as the series Proof and Little Devil. He directed the short film Dance Lexie Dance (1996), which was nominated for an Academy Award.
As an actor, Loane has appeared in series including Game of Thrones, The Fall, Versailles and Blue Lights.
