Grange Hill
Encyclopedia : G : GR : GRA : Grange Hill
- For other uses, see Grange Hill (disambiguation)}}}.
The show began in 1978 and is one of the longest running on British television. The drama is centred on a fictional comprehensive school (called Grange Hill), in north London (although when filming moved to Liverpool in 2003, it ceased to have any specific location), and follows the lives of the children as they progress through school. For its first 25 years it was produced in-house by the BBC, but since the production move to Liverpool it has been made independently for the corporation by Redmond's own Mersey Television production company.
The programme has covered many controversial storylines, ranging from heroin addiction, students throwing benches into the swimming pool (1978; as a result of which, following letters of complaint from teachers and parents, the episode was withdrawn from the repeat season), to rape (2001), and attempted suicide (2005), prompting many complaints from viewers. Grange Hill broke new ground by the inclusion of a gay teacher, Mr Brisley, who was in the cast from 1992 to 1999.
The show spawned a successful spin-off called Tucker's Luck (1983–1985), and launched the acting career of Todd Carty. Also, the 1986 cast released "Grange Hill: The Album", with two singles: "Just Say No" (tying in with a character's heroin addiction) and "You Know the Teacher (Smash Head)". A film based on the series will be released in 2007.
In 2005, Justin Lee Collins reunited some of the cast members from the 1980s in the documentary Bring Back Grange Hill.
Trivia
- Former cast member Laura Sadler died after falling off a building in June 2003; her Grange Hill character was killed after slipping and falling out of a burning building.
- The theme used for the first 12 years of Grange Hill — "Chicken Man" by Alan Hawkshaw — was a library piece composed one hour before it was recorded during a session in Munich, Germany. Grange Hill was the first programme to use it as a theme followed by the popular quiz show Give Us a Clue, who wanted it despite it already being played on Grange Hill.
- The current theme, introduced in 1990, was specially written by Peter Moss.
- Script Editor Anthony Minghella, who worked on the series for several years during the 1980s, later won an Academy Award for Best Director for the film The English Patient in 1996.
- There have been many headmasters of Grange Hill over the years: Mr Starling (1978), Mr Llewelyn (1979–1980), Mrs McClusky (1981–84 and 1986–91), Mr Humphries (1985), Mrs Keele (1992–1994), Mr McNab (1995–1997, never seen), Mr Robson (1998–2003) and Mrs Bassinger (2003–present).
Notable cast members
Pupils
- James Arnold (Arnie) - Aidan J. David
- Justin Bennett - Robert Craig-Morgan
- Roland Browning - Erkan Mustafa
- Pamela Cartwright - Rene Alperstein
- Luke "Gonch" Gardener - John McMahon
- Benny Green - Terry Sue Patt
- Cathy Hargreaves - Lindy Brill
- Alan Humphries - George Armstrong
- Tucker Jenkins - Todd Carty
- Judi Jeffreys - Laura Sadler
- Togger Johnson - Chris Perry-Metcalf
- "Zammo" McGuire - Lee McDonald
- Duane Orpington - Mark Baxter
- "Pogo" Patterson - Peter Moran
- "Tegs" Ratcliffe - Sean Maguire
- Suzanne Ross - Susan Tully
- "Gripper" Stebson - Mark Savage
- "Stewpot" Stewart - Mark Burdis
- Trisha Yates - Michelle Herbert
- Tanya Young - Kirsten Cassidy
- Ziggy Greaves - George Christopher
- Mick Daniels - Joseph Kpobie
Staff
- Mr Geoff "Bullet" Baxter – Michael Cronin
- Mr Bronson - Michael Sheard
- Mr Griffiths (caretaker) - George A. Cooper
- Mr Hopwood - Brian Capron
- Mr Malachay Edward Baker-Duly
- Mrs McClusky - Gwyneth Powell
- Mr Brisley - Adam Ray
- Mr Robson - Stuart Organ
- Wally Scott (caretaker) - Simon O'Brien
- Mr Geoff Hankin - Lee Cornes
- Mrs Margaret Holmes - Rachel Bell
- Mr Llewelyn - Sean Arnold
Spin-offs
External links
- [Grange Hill Online]
- [Phil Redmond's Grange Hill website]
- [Encyclopedia of Television]
- [British Film Institute Screen Online]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.