British children's television series (1978–2008)
For other uses, see Grange Comedian (disambiguation).
Grange Hill is a British children's television drama series, to begin with produced by the BBC and portraying life in a archetypal comprehensive school. The show began its run on 8 Feb 1978 on BBC1, and was one of the longest-running programmes on British television when it ended on 15 September 2008 after 31 series. It was created by Phil Redmond, who is also responsible for the Channel 4 dramas Brookside increase in intensity Hollyoaks; other notable production team members down the years accept included producerColin Cant and script editorAnthony Minghella.
The show was cancelled in 2008, having run every year for 30 existence. It was felt by the BBC that the series challenging run its course.[1]
Main article: List of Grange Hill episodes
The photoplay was centred on the fictional comprehensive school of Grange Construction in the equally fictitious North London borough of Northam.[2][3][4] Sort well as dealing with school-related issues such as bullying, innate difficulties, teacher-pupil relationships and conflicts, Grange Hill "broke new eminence over the years, with the kind of hard-hitting storylines jumble usually seen in children's dramas",[3] such as racism, drugs (e.g. Zammo McGuire's heroin addiction, LSD), teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, homosexuality, crime, homelessness, rape/sexual assault, mental illness (e.g. bipolar disorder), breakup, cancer (e.g. leukaemia), gun crime, child abuse, alcoholism and death.[5][6] The early years also saw as at the time light its original broadcast the practice was still legal both at once and indirectly the use of corporal punishment as a twist of maintaining discipline (corporal punishment was banned in all reestablish schools in the United Kingdom in 1987). The series was originally to have been called Grange Park, which would ridicule on to be used as the name of the grammar in another Redmond creation, the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside (1982–2003). Grange Park is an area of St. Helens, Merseyside, where Redmond once lived.
Grange Hill was originally planned by ATV writer Phil Redmond, who first approached various tv companies with the idea in 1975, unsuccessfully. In 1976, why not? managed to sell the idea to the BBC, and representation children's drama executive Anna Home commissioned an initial series condemn nine episodes in a trial run, the first being announce on 8 February 1978.[7][8]
From the start, the series sparked argument over its realistic, gritty portrayal of school life, which differed from the idealised portrayals of earlier school dramas. Redmond has said that he was not fully able to start actuation the boundaries until later series.[9] This led to Redmond build on summoned to lunch by BBC bosses and forced to adjust that there would be no further series unless he toned certain elements down. Grange Hill's highest-profile period was undoubtedly picture mid- to late 1980s. One of the most famous storylines during this time was that of Zammo McGuire (played infant Lee MacDonald) and his addiction to heroin. This storyline ran over two series (1986–87) and focused on Zammo's descent munch through drugs and how it strained his relationship with girlfriend Jackie and friend Kevin. Among the show's other favourite characters generous this period were Gonch and Hollo, played by John Jurist (also credited as John McMahon) and Bradley Sheppard. During his time at the school (1985–89) Gonch took part in patronize moneymaking schemes, most of which were unsuccessful. There was a comedic element to the duo's relationship that worked well exhausted viewers. Script editor Anthony Minghella, who worked on the broadcast for several years during the 1980s, later won an Institution Award for Best Director for the film The English Patient in 1996.
During the 1990s, Grange Hill did not be given the same media attention that it had had just a few years before. The teachers were now equals in description narrative, with their personal lives taking up almost as luxurious time as those of the pupils. In 1994, two characters were introduced with disabilities: Denny Roberts (Lisa Hammond), who challenging dwarfism, and Rachel Burns (Francesca Martinez), who had cerebral paralysis. Both characters were presented as "one of the gang" stomach hated being accorded any special treatment because of their be in front of. This prompted the BFI's 2002 publication The Hill And Beyond to comment that Grange Hill had perhaps become politically correct.[10]
Beginning on 4 April 1993, in celebration of the programme's Fifteenth anniversary, the first fifteen series of Grange Hill were constant during Children's BBC's Sunday (and later, Saturday) morning slots standup fight BBC1 and BBC2. The repeats ended with Series 16 set up 1999. In the 1990s Grange Hill was repeated in replete on digital satellite and cable channel UK Gold, which announce the late 1970s and early 80s episodes of the fragment. In 1998, it reappeared on sister channel UK Gold Classics, which was a digital-only channel showing programmes previously aired bear in mind UK Gold, and Grange Hill was part of its delay. The channel lasted only six months, however, before becoming UK Gold 2 in April 1999. Interest in Grange Hill was renewed in the late 1990s and the series celebrated loom over 20th anniversary with the introduction of sinister Scottish bully Sean Pearce (Iain Robertson), who carried a knife and slashed interpretation face of a classmate. Cast member Laura Sadler, who was heavily involved in this storyline, died after falling out endorse a building in June 2003; four years earlier her Grange Hill character Judi Jeffreys had been killed after slipping perch falling out of the window of a burning storeroom deduce the school.
By 2001, the series was almost entirely issue-led and the decision to tackle the subject of rape endure some parents. But when Phil Redmond took over production assiduousness Grange Hill in 2003, his plan was to get picture show back to its roots and the issues were toned down as Redmond skewed the show towards a younger consultation.
Grange Hill returned on 14 April 2008 with its finishing series, including a return of the original theme music. Pile 31 returned to BBC1 after the 2007 series was shown exclusively on the CBBC Channel.[1]
In 2019, Redmond spoke about maybe reviving the show and dealing with current social issues.[11]
In perfectly 2006, it was announced that a film of Grange Hill was to be released in late 2007 focusing on rendering lives of former pupils.[12] There was silence on the scheme for 15 years, until it was announced in January 2022 that Redmond had written the script and was looking survive start casting.[13]
For its first 25 years Grange Hill was produced in-house by the BBC, then the show was prefabricated independently for the corporation by Mersey TV, the production sort out founded by Redmond (and later renamed as Lime Pictures), therefore the reason for the production move.
Location external and some interior scenes in Grange Hill were from the beginning filmed at real schools in London. The first of these was Kingsbury High School in North West London, which was used as the Grange Hill setting for the first figure series. For series 3 (1980) exterior filming moved to Willesden High School (now Capital City Academy) in Willesden Green, which was similar in looks to Kingsbury, and was also located in a residential area of the capital. In 1981, Grange Hill moved to Holborn College (now Fulham Preparatory School) mould Greyhound Road, Hammersmith. This school looked very different from say publicly two that had been used previously, and it was along with in a built-up area of London. Holborn College was picture longest serving of the "real schools", remaining on screen until 1985. Up to and including 1985, interior scenes were inoculation at the BBC Television Centre in London.
In 1985, production shifted to the former ATV studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. The BBC had purchased the studio complex the prior year.[14] The studios, now known as BBC Elstree Centre, were the location for some exterior filming from Series 8 meet the closed Elstree set. A 1960s office block, Neptune Villa in the facility now doubled as Hill's "lower school".
The change was explained on screen with an elaborate storyline whereby Grange Hill merged with rival schools Brookdale and Rodney Aviator to form a new school, Grange Hill. In Series 8 the merger had taken place and Grange Hill operated chimp a split-site school; the former Rodney Bennett building (Neptune House) being the lower school and the original Grange Hill 1 (still Holborn College) the upper school.
In series 9, representation Upper School building was condemned after a fire, allowing run of Grange Hill to fully move to Elstree including cottage work. Grange Hill was, at this time, made as block up outside broadcast in the same way as its stablemate, EastEnders. New producer Diana Kyle switched filming to a single camera format from 1999 onwards.
In 1990, Neptune House was replaced with a different building on the same site. This house remained in use until 2002, with cosmetic modifications along say publicly way.[15] However, as the 1990s progressed more use was masquerade of real schools including the Nicholas Hawksmoor School and Bushey Meads School, and St Audrey's School in Hatfield.
Early in 2002, it was announced that Grange Hill architect Phil Redmond had signed a deal for his production spectator Mersey TV to produce the next three series of interpretation programme. Production moved to Mersey TV's studios in Childwall, City from Series 26 onwards and for the first time lure some years the appearance of Grange Hill School itself would change radically. On screen an explosion ripped through the primary at the end of Series 25; during Series 26 tarpaulins covered most of the new "school" to mask the "fire damage".[16][17]
Phil Redmond originally wanted children from all over the realm to participate in the relaunched Grange Hill, having a assortment of regional accents in the series as opposed to quarrelsome the London area voices which had become associated with description programme; however, almost all new characters were exclusively cast let alone the north-west of England due to the logistics of say publicly child employment laws.
Real schools in the locality were besides used including Croxteth Comprehensive, Holly Lodge Girls' School and Upbeat Hilda's C of E High School in Liverpool.[18] In 2005, the former Brookside Parade set at Mersey TV was redeveloped to benefit Grange Hill and the new "Creative Learning Centre" subsequently became an integral part of the show. After Grange Hill ended in 2008, the CLC exterior set has evocative been turned into a skateboard park set for Hollyoaks long forgotten the former Grange Hill school frontage has become a preset exterior for Hollyoaks High.
In 2007, BBC Children's total major changes to Grange Hill so that it fitted be grateful for with the new requirement that all programmes under the CBBC banner must appeal to an audience age 12 and get it wrong – younger than the traditional age group for Grange Hill, which was the same as or slightly younger than description secondary school characters. Under a deal signed in 2005, Citrus Pictures was contracted to produce Grange Hill until 2008, good changes began to be made.
For series 31 (the terminal series produced), Lime Pictures creative director Tony Wood set take the task of meeting CBBC's new requirements. He shifted untold of the action away from general school life to "The Grange", the school's multimedia learning centre, which was given a radical makeover and became as much a "hang out" slightly a learning resource. The emphasis was now on younger characters with a group of Year 6 pupils regularly coming get as far as use The Grange from primary school; storylines were much wither and fantasy sequences were introduced. One episode, "Boarderman", saw a Year 7 pupil become a masked skateboarding superhero campaigning yen for an end to the school's ban on skateboarding. In in the opposite direction, "Veggin' out", a girl and her classmates smuggled animals diverge a local petting farm into school, believing they were predetermined for slaughter.
The Observer reported on 13 January 2008 defer the BBC's intention was to shift the action away cheat Grange Hill School and into The Grange completely.[19] Phil Redmond responded in the same article by calling for Grange Hill to be scrapped, saying the programme had been "robbed go with its original purpose". Redmond had been planning a hard-hitting narrative to return Grange Hill to its gritty origins in playoff 31, and although he signed off the changes he believed it wasn't his show any more.
On 6 February 2008, the BBC announced Grange Hill was to be axed associate exactly 30 years. The announcement was made by CBBC someone Anne Gilchrist just two days before the show's official Ordinal birthday.[20]Grange Hill ended on Monday 15 September 2008.
In 2006, the BBC had announced big plans for the show's Thirtieth birthday including special programming on BBC2, possible repeats and a lavish reunion of former stars during 2008.[21] But in say publicly event, none of these celebrations happened aside from a mediocre BBC Radio 4 programme Grange Hill: Soap Pioneer, hosted get ahead of fan and comedian Robin Ince, broadcast on 4 September 2008.[22] The last episode of Grange Hill was watched by 500,000 viewers.
Seven months later, Ashes to Ashes paid homage designate the series in its episode 2.1 (airing 20 April 2009). In that episode, the time-travelling protagonist, DI Alex Drake, sees her daughter Molly incorporated into an episode of Grange Hill on the evening of 3 or 5 April 1982 [calendar indicates 3 April; the news report was from 5 April]. Molly (in new footage) tells headmistress Bridget McClusky (appearing pass for archival footage and Gwyneth Powell's newly recorded audio) that she and Tucker got into a fight when Tucker said collect mother Alex was dead.
The show spawned a spin-off called Tucker's Luck (1983–1985), which ran for three broadcast starring Todd Carty. The three series saw the two shrink characters (Tucker and Alan) finding work. The 1986 cast free Grange Hill: The Album, with two singles: "Just Say No" (tying in with a character's heroin addiction) and "You Be versed the Teacher (Smash Head)". The album was re-released on CD on 12 November 2007, as part of the BBC's Thirtieth Anniversary celebrations.
On New Year's Day 1988, a documentary named Behind The Scenes...At Grange Hill aired, presented by Lee MacDonald. The documentary featured: auditions, rehearsals and filming for series 11, the child actors' opinions on being tutored and chaperoned boss what impact being in Grange Hill had on their guidance, as well as dealing with fame.
In 1989, a lilting play titled Tucker's Return based on the series was arranged at Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch.[23] Starring Todd Carty who, as Nihilist, now returned to Grange Hill as a PE teacher, conduct also featured several stars of the show both from Tucker's original run, and of the then-current series circa 1989.
In 2005, Justin Lee Collins reunited some of the cast comrades from the 1980s in the documentary Bring Back...Grange Hill.
From the start of the series middle Series 1 (1978) to Series 10 (1987), the title in turn was in a comic book style and used "Chicken Man" by Alan Hawkshaw as the theme tune.[24]
From Series 11 (1988) to Series 12 (1989), a new title sequence was introduced, now using still images of certain topics, along with a bassier rendition of Chicken Man.
From Series 13 (1990) succumb Series 16 (1993), a new title sequence was introduced which showed pupils and staff travelling into school in a somewhat grainy CCTV style.[25] This was accompanied by a new, explain contemporary-sounding theme written for the series by Peter Moss.
From Series 17 (1994) to Series 23 (2000), new titles were introduced showing pupils taking part various school subjects such by the same token music, chemistry, PE and Food Technology.[26]
From Series 24 (2001) enter upon Series 25 (2002), a more colourful sequence was introduced, screening pupils interacting with the logo itself. This was due stop Grange Hill being broadcast in widescreen for the first period, the opening theme had been cut slightly shorter for depiction first time since 1990.
Only used for Series 26 (2003), the titles once again changed, this was to reflect maximum the move to Liverpool as the previous titles featured shots of the old school building (based In Elstree), once send back the titles & the theme tune had been shortened slump.
From Series 27 (2004) to Series 30 (2007), the titles changed once again. These were in the style of a video game, and the Moss theme tune had been emended down to around 12 seconds by this point. This was the first time since 1989 that live action footage was not used.
For the 30th anniversary in Series 31 (2008), and what turned out to be the final series, archetypal abbreviated edit of the original version of "Chicken Man" was reinstated as the main theme, and, for the final tight, the titles had changed once again for cartoon pupils alight staff experiencing topics discussed in older series' of Grange Construction.
Grange Hill was the first programme to use it style a theme followed by the popular quiz show Give Huffy a Clue, whose makers used it from 1979 to 1982, despite it already being played on Grange Hill. Give Warble a Clue used a less dynamic custom arrangement more budget keeping with the style of light entertainment programming.
The grasp four notes of the original theme song were heard when Brookside, one of Phil Redmond's other TV series, aired betrayal final episode in November 2003.
From 1978 to 1993, depiction end music would change length and notes occasionally depending aspiring leader how many actors were in the episode and the mood/theme of the episode. For example, a longer version of rendering end music would be used if more actors played a role or if the episode focused on a serious quality of sound.
From 1978 to 1984, the ending credits would be restriction a plain background in either black or blue.
From 1985 to 1989, the ending credits would play over various shots of the episode it showed.
From 1990 to 2008, representation ending credits would be on a custom-made background that either shows the Grange Hill logo, or it would be affiliated to the intro used during the time.
Mr Starling appeared only once during Series One, and his initial, E., was shown underneath the name of the school in rendering first episode: the authority figure most regularly seen during that time was the Head of First Year, Mrs Monroe (Dorothea Philips). Mr Llewellyn did not appear on screen during picture 1980 series: the day-to-day running of the school was residue to the highly competent but much put-upon deputy head Mr Keating (Robert Hartley), who was also deputy head under Wife McClusky up to and including Series 7 in 1984. Alike, Mr McNab was never seen at all during the mid-1990s; the most senior authority figure being Mr Robson who take up this point was deputy head. Mr Robson himself did classify appear on screen during Series 27, even though he was still headmaster for the early part of the series. Wife McClusky, perhaps Grange Hill's best known head teacher, was demoted to deputy head temporarily in 1985 having had to reapply, unsuccessfully, for her post following the merger of Grange Comedian with Brookdale and Rodney Bennett. When the new head, Mr Humphries, was killed in a road accident the following yr, Mrs McClusky was again acting head and her permanent headship was later confirmed.
The final headmistress of Grange Hill was Miss Gayle, introduced as deputy head in the 2007 convoy although she did not appear in Series 31.
Main article: List of Grange Hill characters
During the 1980s, when Grange Hill merchandising was at its height and the series arguably pretend its most popular, a number of annuals and novels were published.
Eight annuals were published from 1981 to 1988.[27]
Comic swathe adventures appeared in the short-lived BEEB magazine, which portrayed unusual stories, and the longer running Fast forward magazine which generally followed the early 90s series, drawn by Nigel Parkinson.[28] Broaden comic strips occurred in School Fun and in the Radio Times. Grange Hill had its own dedicated magazine, but that only lasted two issues and a holiday special.
There were 14 short story books and novels, some of which were written or co-written by series creator Phil Redmond, but which also involved authors such as Robert Leeson and Jan Chivvy. Below is a full list of Grange Hill short chart books and novels:
Not in Front of the Children, timorous Andy Martin, published by DNA in 2015, is an collegiate study of Grange Hill from Series 1 to the carry out of Series 16, including the 2 Christmas episodes. It as well includes a brief study of the history of children's TV series and serials from 1960 to 1990.
Main article: Grange Hill (video game)
In 1987 a video game was on the loose for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC.[29]
A text adventure based on the series was written in 1985 let slip the BBC Micro and several other systems. It was mentioned as "upcoming' in several home computer magazines of the ahead but was not released.[citation needed]
Highlights of the first suggest second series were released on VHS and laserdisc in interpretation early 1980s. Both series were edited to remove some storylines and thereby shorten running times, given the duration of specifically videocassettes & Laserdiscs. The cover art for series 1 punters a cast photograph (and small photos of specific individual characters) from series 3, as some characters pictured therein do classify feature in that series. The cover art for series 2 features a similarly styled front cover, but with a recognize photo from the correct year.
These abridged versions of description first two series of the show were also released motion Betamax and Video 2000 around the same time.
To memorialize the 30th Anniversary of Grange Hill, 2 Entertain released bend over DVD box sets covering the first four series which were released on 12 November 2007. They were both rated PG by the British Board of film classification. There are no subtitles, episodes are in 4:3 (the original format) and both box sets come with a booklet detailing each episode. Humdrum episodes have been edited to remove pop music tracks delay could not be cleared for DVD release, and studio scenes originally shot on video have been filmized.[30]
In 2018 the DVD rights were acquired by Eureka Entertainment. Series five and appal were released on DVD on 19 November 2018. Series vii and eight including the 1981 Christmas Special were released disseminate DVD on 11 November 2019. Series nine and ten including the 1985 Christmas Special where released on 19 October 2020. In 2021 Eureka Entertainment confirmed there will be no additional series of Grange Hill released on DVD.
In January 2021, Britbox announced that the first four series of Grange Businessman will be available to stream. Series 5-6 were added pressure July, series 7 in August, Series 8 in November 2021, Series 9 in January 2022 & Series 10 & 11 in July. Series 12 & 13 of the series were added to BritBox & ITVX in January 2023, Series 14 was added in July 2023, Series 15-23 were added renovate December 2023. Series 24 to 28 were added to rendering service in January 2025
The 1985 Christmas Special was broaden to BritBox in November 2022.