Waterloo Road fans issue warning after 'glitch' causes viewers to miss 2 full episodes
Have you watched the whole series already? Check again
Waterloo Road series 17 has finally landed on BBC iPlayer, but if you think you’ve watched every episode, you should check again.
It’s a tale as old as… the advent of streaming platforms. From time to time, episodes slip through the cracks and make it to viewers before they were ever meant to be released.
Just this week, The Traitors fans claim to have discovered the secret traitor’s identity after episode 4 was mistakenly released on iPlayer. If it happened, the BBC took it down quickly, but not before people started sharing the spoiler online.
However, what viewers have reported with Waterloo Road series 17 is more unusual – and, arguably, more frustrating.
Watch out for this Waterloo Road ‘glitch’ on BBC iPlayer
Every episode of Waterloo Road series 17 was added to BBC iPlayer at 6am on January 6.
It’s airing weekly double bills on BBC One, but there’s nothing to stop you streaming every episode now. However, that may come at an unexpected price.
Viewers have reported a strange glitch after watching episode 4. As the credits roll, you’ll be shown a prompt to stream the next episode. If you click that button, you’d presume it’d take you to episode 5.
Yet, for reasons that aren’t clear, it starts playing episode 7. If you’re in full-screen mode, there’s a good chance you’d start watching the penultimate episode of the series without realising everything you’d miss.
No spoilers, but episodes 5 and 6 are pivotal for several storylines in series 17 (particularly Portia’s grooming plot), so you don’t want to miss them.
Waterloo Road series 17 ‘spoiled’ after glitch
“Fair warning anyone watching the new series of Waterloo Road on @BBCiPlayer it skips from episode 4 to 7 without warning must be some sort of glitch,” one user wrote on X.
“Has anyone else using iPlayer had it skip from 4 to 7 when they click the continue button at the end of 4? 5 and 6 still work, but you have to click on them manually?” another asked on Reddit.
“I realised mine had skipped so had to go back, kinda ruined it for what’s to come and I was only 2 mins in,” a third wrote.
Here’s the thing: each episode begins with a recap. If you don’t catch what’s happened quickly enough, you could see huge spoilers for the episodes you’ve not seen.
As one user shared, “I was thinking ‘Wait a minute, none of this happened!’
“I had the same thing. The Previously On felt odd when it mentioned things that hadn’t happened yet,” another commented.
One viewer has even reported iPlayer sending them “straight back to series 15” after they finished episode 6. “Something big is up, lol,” they wrote.
Read more: The best BBC iPlayer films you can stream right now
