School for Scandal Brings Sex & Secrets to Our Screens; LIFTING THE LID ON BBC WALES' COLLEGE KIDS DRAMA FIRST DEGREE

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Byline: ANNIE LEASK

BOLD and innovative are not normally words one associates with the BBC, but their latest dramatic offering First Degree is all that and more.

It has a cast of good-looking young actors, a smattering of swearing and plenty of sex.

With this edgy nine-parter BBC Wales is unashamedly pursuing younger viewers. Stung by the public's rejection of court-room drama The Bench the Corporation is going back to basics with First Degree.

There is certainly nothing refined about some of the language, or the rather brutal sex scenes.

But the new show - filmed in the huge warehouse space outside Newport which once held the set of the now defunct, The Bench - has a sophisticated, glossy look that has been missing from much of the recent youth TV offerings.

First Degree charts the progress of a group of students who attend the fictitious, prestigious New Technology hot house, Bay College , in Cardiff.

In the first double-length episode on BBC 1 Wales tonight, viewers see the wannabe Bay College students put through their paces to see who is in and who is out.

The Welsh Daily Mirror tracked down two of the show's stars who hope First Degree has what it takes to become a hit.AMANDA RAWNSLEY plays the vulnerable, damaged Maddy - a character so controlled by creepy lecturer Johann that she has sex with other men so he can watch her on the CCTV cameras. …