It must be Britain's most well known comprehensive school, it's 25 years old this year, and it's back on our screens tonight. It's Grange Hill, and it's also one of my favourite TV programmes. I remember the first episode, I've set my video for the latest episode, and I reckon I've watched virtually all of the 500 or so episodes inbetween. Admittedly it's not the most realistic TV show ever to be screened - any school with that many dysfunctional staff, let alone pupils, would have received a vist from Her Majesty's Inspectorate many years ago (actually, in the last series there was this great Reservoir-Dogs-type scene when the grey-suited men from OFSTED walked up to the school gates...). However, a ground-breaking drama series set in an anonymous suburban comprehensive was always going to strike a chord with a viewing audience just home from school, and so it is that Grange Hill chalks up a quarter of a century tonight.
So which era of Grange Hill do you remember? Trisha and Tucker maybe, or Gonch and Zammo, or perhaps Miss Carver and Mr Hankin? Did your school dinner ladies ever serve up a glowing sausage like that one in the opening credits? Was your school bully called Gripper, Imelda or Mauler? Did you ever wish that Mrs McClusky was your headteacher, or rejoice that Mr Bronson wasn't? Was your PE teacher firm but fair like Mr Baxter, a psychopath like Mr Hicks, or unexpectedly catapulted to headteacherdom like Mr Robson? Were there really ever any children in normal schools with nicknames like Pogo, Ziggy or Tegs? Did your class ever have a bolshy school refuser like Danny Kendall, or a misunderstood kid with Asperger's like Martin Miller (you've not been watching lately, have you?). Was Cartman from South Park based on Row-land Browning, did Boy George ever learn any fashion tips from Suzanne Ross, and would Nancy Reagan ever have learnt to 'Just say No' without Zammo's heroin habit? Or are you just sitting there reading this in the States thinking 'Grange What?', doesn't he mean Degrassi Junior High?
I was forever endeared to Grange Hill in 1994 when they filmed a scene betwen Mr Robson and his illicit love interest outside the house I grew up in. This was, however, a sign that the emphasis of the show was moving dangerously away from the lives of the children towards the lives of the staff. This change, at last, is to be reversed. The latest series of Grange Hill is being produced by Phil Redmond, creator (and destroyer) of Brookside. Phil wants the show to return to concentrating more on the antics of the children, not all of whom will be suffering from stereotypical medical conditions and social inadequacy. He also arranged that the old school building be burnt to the ground at the end of last year's series (oh, that evil deputy head Mr Deveril), so the Class of 2003 will now be attending a new school set somewhere in the north-west of England and no longer anywhere up the eastern end of the Central line.
TuckerJenkins returns tonight as the uncle of one of the new characters (probably just as well, given that he's only got days left to live on EastEnders). I'm sure this reappearance isn't just a shameless publicity stunt - Phil Redmond normally crashes a plane into a series if he really wants to make an impact in the media. But it's good to know that I won't be the only character from 1978 still attending Grange Hill tonight, 25 years on.
Grange Hill
