Grange Hill
 Odd really. British kids used to race home from school to watch
a TV series about . . . school.
But Grange Hill was funnier, scarier, and generally more
interesting than your school!
For a start, it was set in a tough East London inner city
comprehensive school. And it dealt with issues facing real British
teenagers such as drugs, alcohol, bullying, shoplifting, truancy,
sex, love and teen pregnancy.
But it wasn't all AIDS and car crashes - Although the series
dealt with these issues it did so with a good dose of humour, and
there were many light hearted comedy moments in Grange Hill.
Created and written by struggling Liverpudlian comedy writer
Phil Redmond (who would go on to create UK soap Brookside
), Grange Hill was actually filmed in a real school -
Kingsbury High School in North-West London - and the first two
seasons concentrated on the lives of a group of eleven-year-old
students who started at Grange Hill Comprehensive in 1978.
The bad boy Tucker Jenkins (pronounced "Jinkins") was
the working-class anti-hero. His best friend Benny Green, an
even-tempered black boy, battled with the problems of racial
prejudice and poverty . Although he was a skilled footballer, he
was stigmatised by poverty as teachers constantly reprimanded him
for wearing the wrong school uniform or the old gym shoes.
By the time Tucker and his pals reached third form, a new
intake of kids entered the school. Subsequently, every two years
after this, a new class of younger students would enter the
limelight to interact with their veteran classmates.
The second intake of Grange Hill pupils included Zammo McGuire
- the Tucker Jenkins of his own generation. In 1986, amidst
national panic about drug abuse in schools, Zammo became addicted
to glue sniffing and "hard" drugs.
The storyline of his descent into smack hell was conceived in
conjunction with a national anti-drugs awareness scheme to alert
kids to the dangers of illegal drugs. Zammo on drugs was such a
news item that it even featured on Blue Peter. Other
notable characters included Gripper Stebson, Gonch, Cally, and
Mauler McCaul and Imelda Davies the school bullies.
Grange Hill was not well received by parents and critics
who condemned its images of worldly, disrespectful and
disillusioned students. Mary Whitehouse said the series encouraged
bad behaviour and undermined teachers' authority.
Children, on the other hand, found the series a little too
"nice". The tone of the show was changed after the first
season, in response to kids who complained that things weren't
tough enough.
Grange Hill spawned a spin-off called Tucker's Luck
(BBC 2, 1983-85) which was aimed at slightly older children and
teenagers, and dealt with the problems facing working-class youth
with few academic qualifications - like Tucker and his friends -
in a world of growing unemployment. This series was not as popular
(nor as controversial) as Grange Hill largely because it
was shown against the early evening news on both BBC 1 and ITV.
Another Phil Redmond series for kids ultimately followed. This
time it was set "up north" - It was called Byker
Grove.
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