PRU: what is new BBC Three show about, release date, cast with Pia Somersby and Jaye Ersavas, and how to watch

A new sitcom about troubled teens is coming to BBC Three next week.

The pilot episode of PRU premiered in March 2021, and just over a year later, PRU is available to watch from Thursday 26 May.

The short series is being released as a box set on iPlayer the same day.

Here is everything you need to know:

What is the show about?

PRU, which stands for pupil referral unit, is a comedy series about a group of 15-year-old teenagers struggling to navigate adolescence in a school for excluded kids - who can’t help but say the unsayable and do the undoable.

Throughout the upcoming episodes, the stories are told through the eyes of four charismatic but complex teenagers - Sienna, Halil, Belle and Jaeden, for whom sometimes the smallest obstacles are often the biggest trouble.

Written by Alex Tenenbaum and Nathaniel Stevens (co-writers of Abnormal), the series covers topics such as family cycles, PRU to prison likelihoods and people being mis-medicated.

Who is the cast of PRU?

The Fully Focused-produced PRU features a whole host of new young names. Fully Focused is the leading youth-driven production company in the UK.

Some of those include the main four teenagers with Nkechi Simms as Sienna, Pia Somersby as Belle, Jay Esravas as Halil and Michael Boahen as Jaeden.

However, audiences may recognise other cast members such as Hannah Walters (This is England, Boiling Point), Will Hislop (Gangs of London, Grantchester) or Umit Ulgen (Doctor Strange, The Night Manager).

What have the cast said about the upcoming season?

The four teenage cast members spoke to BBC about what people can expect and how they got involved through finding an Instagram advertisement, ahead of the programme’s release.

Nkechi Simms who plays main character Sienna says she was inspired by her own experiences when preparing for the role.

“I definitely drew inspiration from my own experiences in a PRU and all the different people that I met and observed, and I drew elements from my younger self,” she said.

“I think viewers can come back to their own youth [when watching the series]. They can expect to laugh a lot, gain a new understanding and perspective of young people that we are talking about and maybe young people in their own lives.

“I’m really proud of the way that we’ve tied some really serious emotive themes into the show, but we did it in a really funny, comedic and relatable way.”

Director Teddy Nygh is proud of the production team and excited for the new commission, he said in an interview with British Comedy Guide:

“We are incredibly proud of what we have created together with the writers, the young team at Fully Focused, our amazing cast and the whole process from Instagram Live castings to our phenomenal crew, who worked so hard to create the show during the pandemic.

“We are over the moon and can’t wait to raise the bar again whilst ensuring the authenticity and humanity our leading characters shine through all the while delivering the realness we always do, with bundles of laughter at the forefront.”