Grange Hill

I've recently been rewatching the glory years, Mid 80's to early 90's, and its just been sublime. So many memories of my school years have been flooding back in for me. Gonch and Cleaver, Mr Bronson, Jackie and Zammo, Ronnie and Callie. All were wonderful characters. (Well they were to the teenage me!) Its just amazing how intricate and hard hitting some of the GH plotlines were. And of course just how much fun the show was to watch. My all time favourites were Ziggy and Robbie and, especially, Georgina Hayes. I had a massive crush on her at the time, or i should say Samantha Lewis. They have been releasing the DVDs of the early early years but i ireally hope they get around to releasing the best years on DVD. I have to watch on terrible MP4 copies but they are better than nothing. Such a shame they cancelled it. The kids of today dont know what they are missing.

Perhaps its heyday is now in the past, but "Grange Hill" was long one of the most arresting and high quality soap operas on television. There was a fantastic mix of actors and actresses, and writing that confronted some of the major issues that teenagers have to deal with, but mostly without preaching and irresponsibility. I have to say that I view this approach as mostly being down to one man - Phil Redmond. (Surprise surprise, NOT Anthony Minghella!!) I rarely, if ever, watch "Brookside" or "Hollyoaks", but even these, his other two notable creations, display a similar innovative style. Top marks to the man who injected a bit of 'risk into 'youth culture' T.V!

"Grange Hill" is now an institution, spawning many talented performers (and some not so... !) in its long running tenure. As far as I know, it's still going today as well! This is a series that speaks to young people as being the future of our society, not the curse of it. For that it should be applauded. Well done to the producers for maintaining such high quality standards.

As an afterthought, why do my favourite characters never appear in a list of anybody else's favourites? I chiefly remember Justine and Georgina, and that probably has a lot to do with my sex, age and sexual orientation... !

Have been rewatching this recently out of nostalgia. About 10 years ago I got hold of the first 6 series that went from Tucker, Alan, Benny, Tommy and co. To Stewpot, Claire Scott, Pogo, and Gripper, etc. And at that point excitedly relived my youth! I first started watching it in late 1979, series 2 and was like many a kid was hooked throughout the 1980s. I was still watching it in 1988/89 when Michelle Gayle was in it!

Anyway, as a Phil Redmond creation, it (nowadays on refelection) seems like a precursor to Brookside. With real life characterisations, real life settings, indellible characters, clever nicknames, and hard hitting stories. It is noticeable that a few Redmond traits are in this, partcularly the name 'Brookdale' as a school and another one, where some the cast's surnames would be given to some of the characters. If anyone does not get that point think, John McArdle actor, Tommy McArdle character (Brookside) as a case in point. Brookside did that kind of thing a lot and it was something that was done first in Grange Hill. Both shows also had a mememorable to this day story. Zammo's addiction, and the infamous body under the patio.

Back to the main review. Most kids of the 80s have a favourite year that identified with their own age group. For me I thought Tucker was a cool role model but I was a bit young but by series 6 with aforementioned Stewpot, Gripper and the rest it became my and my school friends' favourite. I was, like many a big fan of Jonah Jones and Ziggy Greaves but still think the Gripper era was the best. Grange Hill never had a better villain than him.

Watching it again recently, the third series is excellent, with some highly amusing scenes. It gets better still in series 4 when Tucker and co. Are in their final year at school. The Christmas special that came along later that year is very good with the school's initial villain 'Booger' Benson duffing up Tucker. The silent end credits to that as Tucker lays unconscious is also very Phil Redmond style and I think the method was repeated once in Brookside.

So, for me series 3,4,5 and 6 are my particular era and it is fascinating to watch again knowing the storylines in advance. I always think that when I was a kid I acted like a Grange Hill kid and many years later when I became a high school teacher I acted like a Grange Hill teacher! Mr. Keating's "silence!", is one such line I have often used!

The school that was used for the Gripper era (and probably the most rembered by 80s kids) is on Greyhound Road in Hammersmith, West London. When I was in the area last, I just had to get a photo by the main gates!

The BBC in my opinion have totally lost the plot over the last few years, cancelling such classic TV shows like Grange Hill, Byker Grove, TOTP and even losing Neighbours to Channel 5 (although I wasn't a great fan of Neighbours though, so I was glad to see that one go!).

The director general of the BBC should be sacked for the mess he's made over the past few years of what was regarded as such a high class institution, but has now gone right down in society, with the best new rubbish they can come up with is idiots like Jonathan Ross. I bet most of these top shows were axed just so they could pay this idiots wages (and then look what he does). I certainly don't agree that the BBC should have just suspended Rossy, they should have fired him, if the BBC had fired him the only job he would have got after his lewd comments would have been doing stand-up in front of a private audience as no other company would take the risk to re-employ him.

The BBC need to stop and look at the mess they are making and to bring back shows such as Grange Hill which helped school children understand various things in school life. I only wish that they had covered Asperger's on Grange Hill a little earlier as I went through school with Asperger's and ADHD and most of the kids around me didn't understand me at all. Where as now thanks to Grange Hill covering this it seems that quite a lot of young people are fully aware of Asperger's and show some understanding towards the problems faced.

Grange Hill never fails to entertain me. It has been running for many years but each year it just gets better! Well Done BBC!! Another great show from the BBC is Byker Grove which is set in Newcastle. Its truly great and is better for 13+ than younger kids while shows such as UBOS is definitely not for teens. Grange Hill always brings in great new characters each school year but some also leave as they reach sixth form. I have seen many great characters go but the BBC make up for this b bringing in some more fantastic people. However i feel Mersey Televiion have let us down this year as they have brought in some really poor actors and its not good watching!