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''Grange Hill'' is a British

children's television Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...

drama series, originally produced by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

and portraying life in a typical comprehensive school. The show began its run on 8 February 1978 on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

, 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 Sir Philip Redmond (born 10 June 1949) is an English television producer and screenwriter from Huyton, England. He is known for creating the television series ''Grange Hill'', '' Brookside'' and ''Hollyoaks''. Early life Redmond took the 11- ...

, who is also responsible for the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

dramas ''

Brookside Brookside may refer to: Geography Canada * Brookside, Edmonton * Brookside, Newfoundland and Labrador * Brookside, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Brookside, Berkshire, England * Brookside, Telford, an area of Telford, England United States * Br ...

'' and ''

Hollyoaks ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera '' Brookside''. Since 2005, episodes have been aired on sister channel E4 a ...

''; other notable production team members down the years have included producer

Colin Cant Colin Cant is a British television director, producer and scenic designer, best known for his work for the children's department of BBC Television from the 1970s to the 1990s. After beginning his career as a designer, he moved to directing and w ...

and script editor

Anthony Minghella Anthony Minghella, (6 January 195418 March 2008) was a British film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was chairman of the board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007. He won the Academy Award for Best Directo ...

. The show was cancelled in 2008, having run every year for 30 years. It was felt by the BBC that the series had run its course."BBC to shut gates on Grange Hill"
BBC News, 6 February 2008

Overview

The drama was centred on the fictional comprehensive school of Grange Hill in the equally fictitious

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nor ...

borough of Northam. As well as dealing with school-related issues such as bullying, learning difficulties, teacher-pupil relationships and conflicts, ''Grange Hill'' "broke new ground over the years, with the kind of hard-hitting storylines not usually seen in children's dramas", such as racism, drugs (e.g. Zammo McGuire's

heroin addiction Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a substance use disorder characterized by cravings for opioids, continued use despite physical and/or psychological deterioration, increased tolerance with use, and withdrawal symptoms after discontinuing opioids. Op ...

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...

), teenage pregnancy,

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

, homosexuality, knife crime, homelessness, rape/sexual assault, mental illness (e.g. bipolar disorder), divorce,

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

(e.g. leukaemia),

gun crime Gun-related violence is violence committed with the use of a firearm. Gun-related violence may or may not be considered criminal. Criminal violence includes homicide (except when and where ruled justifiable), assault with a deadly weapon, an ...

, child abuse, alcoholism and

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

. The series was originally to have been called ''Grange Park'', which would go on to be used as the name of the school in another Redmond creation, the

soap opera ''

'' (1982–2003).

Series history

''Grange Hill'' was originally conceived by ATV writer

, who first approached various television companies with the idea in 1975, unsuccessfully. In 1976, he managed to sell the idea to the

...
, and the children's drama executive Anna Home commissioned an initial series of nine episodes in a trial run, the first being broadcast on 8 February 1978. From the start, the series sparked controversy 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 pushing the boundaries until later series. This led to Redmond being summoned to lunch by BBC bosses and forced to agree that there would be no further series unless he toned certain elements down. ''Grange Hills highest-profile period was undoubtedly the mid- to late 1980s. One of the most famous storylines during this time was that of Zammo McGuire (played by Lee MacDonald) and his addiction to heroin. This storyline ran over two series (1986–87) and focused on Zammo's descent into drugs and how it strained his relationship with girlfriend Jackie and friend Kevin. The show's other favourite characters during this period were Gonch and Hollo, played by John Holmes and Bradley Sheppard. During his time at the school (1985–89) Gonch took part in many moneymaking schemes, most of which were unsuccessful. There was a comedic element to the duo's relationship that worked well with viewers. Script editor

, 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 ''The English Patient'' is a 1992 novel by Michael Ondaatje. The book follows four dissimilar people brought together at an Italian villa during the Italian Campaign of the Second World War. The four main characters are: an unrecognisably burn ...

'' in 1996. During the 1990s, ''Grange Hill'' did not receive the same media attention that it had had just a few years before. The teachers were now equals in the narrative, with their personal lives taking up almost as much time as those of the pupils. In 1994, two characters were introduced with disabilities: Denny Roberts ( Lisa Hammond), who had dwarfism, and Rachel Burns ( Francesca Martinez), who had cerebral palsy. Both characters were presented as "one of the gang" and hated being accorded any special treatment because of their circumstances. This prompted the BFI's 2002 publication ''The Hill And Beyond'' to comment that ''Grange Hill'' had perhaps become politically correct. Beginning on 4 April 1993, in celebration of the programme's 15th anniversary, the first fifteen series of ''Grange Hill'' were repeated during Children's BBC's Sunday (and later, Saturday) morning slots on BBC1 and BBC2. The repeats ended with Series 16 in 1999. In the 1990s ''Grange Hill'' was repeated in full on digital satellite and cable channel UK Gold, which broadcast the late 1970s and early 80s episodes of the show. In 1998, it reappeared on sister channel UK Gold Classics, which was a digital-only channel showing programmes previously aired on UK Gold, and ''Grange Hill'' was part of its schedule. 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 its 20th anniversary with the introduction of sinister Scottish bully Sean Pearce ( Iain Robertson), who carried a knife and slashed the face of a classmate. Cast member Laura Sadler, who was heavily involved in this storyline, died after falling out of a building in June 2003; four years earlier her ''Grange Hill'' character Judi Jeffreys had been killed after slipping and falling out of the window of a burning storeroom in the school. By 2001, the series was almost entirely issue-led and the decision to tackle the subject of rape upset some parents. But when Phil Redmond took over production of ''Grange Hill'' in 2003, his plan was to get the show back to its roots and the issues were toned down as Redmond skewed the show towards a younger audience. ''Grange Hill'' returned on 14 April 2008 with its final series, including a return of the original theme music. Series 31 returned to BBC1 after the 2007 series was shown exclusively on the

CBBC Channel CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 7– ...

. In 2019, Redmond spoke about possibly reviving the show and dealing with current social issues.

Film

In early 2006, it was announced that a film of ''Grange Hill'' was to be released in late 2007 focusing on the lives of former pupils. There was silence on the project for 15 years, until it was announced in January 2022 that Redmond had written the script and was looking to start casting.

Production history

For its first 25 years Grange Hill was produced in-house by the

...
, then the show was made independently for the corporation by Mersey TV, the production house founded by Redmond (and later renamed as Lime Pictures), hence the reason for the production move.

Television Centre years: 1978–1985

Location external and some interior scenes in ''Grange Hill'' were originally filmed at real schools in London. The first of these would be Kingsbury High School in North West London, which was used as the ''Grange Hill'' setting for the first two series. For series 3 (1980) exterior filming moved to Willesden High School (now Capital City Academy) in

Willesden Green Willesden () is an area of northwest London, situated 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Charing Cross. It is historically a parish in the county of Middlesex that was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Willesden in 1933, and has formed p ...

, which was similar in looks to Kingsbury and was also situated in a residential area of the capital. In 1981, ''Grange Hill'' moved to Holborn College (now

Fulham Preparatory School Fulham School, originally founded as Fulham Preparatory School, is a school in Fulham, London, teaching children from the age of three up to eighteen (completing the International Baccalaureate, IB). From its beginnings as a pre-prep and Prepara ...

) in Greyhound Road, Hammersmith. This school looked very different from the two that had been used previously, and it was also in a built-up area of London. Holborn College was the longest serving of the "real schools", remaining on screen until 1985. Up to and including 1985, interior scenes were shot at the

BBC Television Centre Television Centre (TVC) is a building complex in White City, West London, that was the headquarters of BBC Television between 1960 and 2013. After a refurbishment, the complex reopened in 2017 with three studios in use for TV production, opera ...

in London.

Elstree years: 1985–2002

In 1985, production shifted to the former ATV studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. The BBC had purchased the studio complex the previous year. The studios, now known as

BBC Elstree Centre The BBC Elstree Centre, sometimes referred to as the BBC Elstree Studios, is a television production facility, currently owned by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The complex is located between Eldon Avenue and Clarendon Road in Bore ...

, were the location for some exterior filming from Series 8 on the closed Elstree set. A 1960s office block, Neptune House 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 Bennett to form a new school, Grange Hill. In Series 8 the merger had taken place and Grange Hill operated as a split-site school; the former Rodney Bennett building (Neptune House) being the lower school and the original Grange Hill building (still Holborn College) the upper school. In series 9, the Upper School building was condemned after a fire, allowing production of ''Grange Hill'' to fully move to Elstree including studio work. ''Grange Hill'' was, at this time, made as an 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 building remained in use until 2002, with cosmetic modifications along the way. However, as the 1990s progressed more use was made of real schools including the Nicholas Hawksmoor School and Bushey Meads School, and St Audrey's School in Hatfield.

Liverpool years: 2003–2008

Early in 2002, it was announced that ''Grange Hill'' creator Phil Redmond had signed a deal for his production company Mersey TV to produce the next three series of the programme. Production moved to Mersey TV's studios in

Childwall Childwall () is a suburb and ward of Liverpool, England, located to the southeast of the city. It is bordered by Belle Vale, Bowring Park, Broadgreen, Gateacre, Mossley Hill, and Wavertree. In 2019, the population was 13,640. Overview The earl ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

from Series 26 onwards and for the first time in some years the appearance of Grange Hill School itself would change radically. On screen an explosion ripped through the school at the end of Series 25; during Series 26 tarpaulins covered most of the new "school" to mask the "fire damage". Phil Redmond originally wanted children from all over the country to participate in the relaunched ''Grange Hill'', having a variety of regional accents in the series as opposed to just the London area voices which had become associated with the programme; however, almost all new characters were exclusively cast from the north-west of England due to the logistics of the child employment laws. Real schools in the locality were also used including Croxteth Comprehensive, Holly Lodge Girls' School and St Hilda's C of E High School in Liverpool. In 2005, the former

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 now been turned into a skateboard park set for ''

'' while the former Grange Hill school frontage has become a permanent exterior for Hollyoaks High.

"The Grange"

In 2007, BBC Children's ordered major changes to ''Grange Hill'' so that it fitted in with the new requirement that all programmes under the CBBC banner must appeal to an audience age 12 and under – younger than the traditional age group for ''Grange Hill'', which was the same as or slightly younger than the secondary school characters. Under a deal signed in 2005, Lime Pictures was contracted to produce ''Grange Hill'' until 2008, so changes began to be made. For series 31, Lime Pictures creative director Tony Wood set about the task of meeting CBBC's new requirements. He shifted much 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" as a learning resource. The emphasis was now on younger characters with a group of Year 6 pupils regularly coming to use The Grange from primary school; storylines were much lighter and fantasy sequences were introduced. One episode, "Boarderman", saw a Year 7 pupil become a masked skateboarding superhero campaigning for an end to the school's ban on skateboarding. In another, "Veggin' out", a girl and her classmates smuggled animals from a local petting farm into school, believing they were destined for slaughter. ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' reported on 13 January 2008 that the BBC's intention was to shift the action away from Grange Hill School and into The Grange completely. Phil Redmond responded in the same article by calling for ''Grange Hill'' to be scrapped, saying the programme had been "robbed of its original purpose". Redmond had been planning a hard-hitting storyline to return ''Grange Hill'' to its gritty origins in series 31, and although he signed off the changes he believed it wasn't his show any more.

Cancellation

On 6 February 2008, the BBC announced ''Grange Hill'' was to be axed after exactly 30 years. The announcement was made by CBBC controller Anne Gilchrist just two days before the show's official 30th birthday. ''Grange Hill'' ended on Monday 15 September 2008. In 2006, the BBC had announced big plans for the show's 30th birthday including special programming on BBC2, possible repeats and a lavish reunion of former stars during 2008. But in the event, none of these celebrations happened aside from a special BBC Radio 4 programme ''Grange Hill: Soap Pioneer'', hosted by fan and comedian Robin Ince, broadcast on 4 September 2008. The last episode of ''Grange Hill'' was watched by 500,000 viewers. Seven months later, '' Ashes to Ashes'' paid homage to 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 alendar indicates 3 April; the news report was from 5 April Molly (in new footage) tells headmistress Bridget McClusky (appearing as archival footage and

Gwyneth Powell Gwyneth Powell (5 July 1946 – 8 September 2022) was an English actress. She was best known for her portrayal of headmistress Bridget McClusky in the BBC television series ''Grange Hill'' for eleven series between 1981 and 1991. Background P ...

's newly recorded audio) that she and Tucker got into a fight when Tucker said her mother Alex was dead.

Spin-offs and merchandise

The show spawned a spin-off called '' Tucker's Luck'' (1983–1985), which ran for three series starring

Todd Carty Todd Carty also known as Todd John Jennings (born Todd Robert Carty; 31 August 1963) is an English actor and director who has grown up on television screens in a variety of roles. His stage appearances have ranged from pantomime to serious dram ...

. The three series saw the two lead characters (Tucker and Alan) finding work. 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)". The album was re-released on CD on 12 November 2007, as part of the BBC's 30th Anniversary celebrations. On New Year's Day 1988, a documentary titled ''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 and what impact being in ''Grange Hill'' had on their schooling, as well as dealing with fame. In 1989, a musical play titled ''Tucker's Return'' based on the series was staged at

Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch The Queen's Theatre is a 507-seat mid-scale producing theatre located in Hornchurch in the London Borough of Havering, east London. History Hornchurch Urban District Council purchased a derelict cinema on Station Lane (the site of the present ...

. Starring Todd Carty who, as Tucker, now returned to Grange Hill as a PE teacher, it 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 members from the 1980s in the documentary '' Bring Back...Grange Hill''.

Title sequence and theme music

From the start of the series to 1989, the title sequence was in a comic book style and used " Chicken Man" by

Alan Hawkshaw William Alan Hawkshaw (27 March 1937 – 16 October 2021) was a British composer and performer, particularly of library music used as themes for movies and television programs. Hawkshaw worked extensively for the KPM production music company ...

as the theme tune. ''Grange Hill'' was the first programme to use it as a theme followed by the popular quiz show ''

Give Us a Clue ''Give Us a Clue'' is a British televised game show version of charades which was broadcast on ITV from 1979 to 1992. The original host was Michael Aspel from 1979 to 1984, followed by Michael Parkinson from 1984 to 1992. The show featured two ...

'', whose makers used it from 1979 to 1982, despite it already being played on ''Grange Hill''. ''Give Us a Clue'' used a less dynamic custom arrangement more in keeping with the style of light entertainment programming. A new title sequence was introduced in 1988, along with an updated recording of Chicken Man. In 1990 a new title sequence was introduced which showed pupils and staff travelling into school in a slightly grainy CCTV style. This was accompanied by a new, more contemporary-sounding theme written for the series by Peter Moss. Moss had previously written some special hip-hop music for a storyline in Series 11 of ''Grange Hill''. In 1994 new titles were introduced showing pupils taking part various school subjects such as music, chemistry, PE and Food Technology, and the end theme was re-edited and re-recorded to reduce its length to just 35 seconds, the first edit in 4 years of the theme. This removed some of the various background elements and sharpened the end notes considerably. However, during this period in particular (1995–2000) several versions were used, with a variety of slightly longer edits creating different lead outs depending on the mood and theme of the episode. In 2001 a more colourful sequence was introduced, this was due to Grange Hill being broadcast in widescreen for the first time, the opening theme had been cut slightly shorter for the first time since 1990. In 2003 the titles once again changed, this was to reflect on the move to Liverpool as the previous titles featured shots of the old school building (based In Elstree), once again the titles & the theme tune had been shortened down. In 2004 the titles changed once again, these were in the style of a video game, The Moss theme tune had been edited 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, and what turned out to be the final series, an abbreviated edit of the original version of "Chicken Man" was reinstated as the main theme. And for the final time, the titles had changed once again. The last four notes of the original theme song were heard when ''

'', one of Phil Redmond's other TV series, aired its final episode in November 2003.

Head teachers

Mr Starling appeared only once during Series One, and his initial, E., was shown underneath the name of the school in the first episode: the authority figure most regularly seen during this time was the Head of First Year, Mrs Monroe (Dorothea Philips). Mr Llewellyn did not appear on screen during the 1980 series: the day-to-day running of the school was left to the highly competent but much put-upon deputy head Mr Keating ( Robert Hartley), who was also deputy head under Mrs McClusky up to and including Series 7 in 1984. Similarly, Mr McNab was never seen at all during the mid-1990s; the most senior authority figure being Mr Robson who at this point was deputy head. Mr Robson himself did not appear on screen during Series 27, even though he was still headmaster for the early part of the series. Mrs 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 Hill with Brookdale and Rodney Bennett. When the new head, Mr Humphries, was killed in a road accident the following year, 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 series although she did not appear in Series 31.

Cast

Books

During the 1980s, when ''Grange Hill'' merchandising was at its height and the series arguably at its most popular, a number of annuals and novels were published. Eight annuals were published from 1981 to 1988. Comic strip adventures appeared in the short-lived ''

BEEB ''BEEB'' was a weekly, children's magazine centred on the BBC's most popular programmes at the time of its publication. It was published by Polystyle Publications and was created as a competitor to ITV's Look-in magazine. It lasted 20 issues ...

'' magazine, which portrayed new stories, and the longer running ''

Fast forward To fast-forward is to move forwards through a recording at a speed faster than that at which it would usually be played, for example two times or two point five times. The recordings are usually audio, video or computer data. It is colloquially ...

'' magazine which loosely followed the early 90s series. Additional comic strips occurred in '' School Fun'' and in the '' Radio Times''. ''Grange Hill'' had its own dedicated magazine, but this 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

, but which also involved authors such as Robert Leeson and Jan Needle. Below is a full list of Grange Hill short story books and novels: # ''Grange Hill Stories'', by Phil Redmond. First published by the

...
in 1979. Short stories. # ''Grange Hill Rules OK?'', by Robert Leeson. Published by Fontana Lions in 1980. The first ''Grange Hill'' novel. # ''Grange Hill Goes Wild'', by Robert Leeson. Published by Fontana Lions in 1980. Novel # ''Grange Hill for Sale'' by Robert Leeson. Published by Fontana Lions in 1981. Novel # ''Tucker and Co.'', by Phil Redmond. Published by Fontana Lions in 1982. Novel # ''Grange Hill Home and Away'' by Robert Leeson. Published by Fontana Lions in 1982. Novel # ''Great Days at Grange Hill'', by Jan Needle. Published by Fontana Lions in 1984. Short stories that form a sort of prequel to ''Grange Hill Stories''. # ''Grange Hill After Hours'', by Phil Redmond. Published by Magnet in 1986. Novel # ''Grange Hill Graffiti'', by Phil Redmond. Published by Magnet in 1986. Novel # ''Grange Hill on the Run'', by Phil Redmond. Published by Magnet in 1986. Novel # ''Grange Hill Heroes'', by Phil Redmond and David Angus. Published by Magnet in 1987. Novel # ''Grange Hill Rebels'', by Phil Redmond and David Angus. Published by Magnet in 1987. Novel # ''Grange Hill Partners'', by Phil Redmond and David Angus. Published by Magnet in 1988. Novel # ''Ziggy's Working Holiday'', by Phil Redmond and Margaret Simpson. Published by Magnet in 1988. Novel ''Not in Front of the Children'', by Andy Martin, published by DNA in 2015, is an academic study of ''Grange Hill'' from Series 1 to the end of Series 16, including the 2 Christmas episodes. It also includes a brief study of the history of children's TV series and serials from 1960 to 1990.

Video game

In 1987 a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

was made for 8-bit computers including the Commodore 64,

Sinclair ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colour ...

and

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Si ...

. A

text adventure '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...

game based on the series was written in 1985 for the

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...

and several other systems, and was mentioned as 'upcoming' in several home computer magazines of the time, with the player having to navigate through a tricky school day as the end of term approaches, solving a number of tricky situations and trying to "get your grades" after the family dog has literally eaten an entire year's homework. However the game was ultimately never released, reportedly because it used multiple names and characters from the actual television series, which would have made it difficult and costly to clear the individual royalties for each one. (The later 1987 game secured three character names and images but nothing else from the series to keep royalties costs down.)

Home media

Highlights of the first and second series were released on VHS and laserdisc in the early 1980s. Both series were edited to remove some storylines and thereby shorten running times, given the duration of early videocassettes & Laserdisc's. The cover art for series 1 features a cast photograph (and small photos of specific individual characters) from series 3, as some characters pictured therein do not feature in that series. The cover art for series 2 features a similarly styled front cover, but with a cast photo from the correct year. These abridged versions of the first two series of the show were also released on Betamax and Video 2000 around the same time. To commemorate the 30th Anniversary of ''Grange Hill'',

2 Entertain 2 Entertain (stylized as 2 , entertain) is a British video and music publisher founded in September 2004 by the merger of BBC Video and Video Collection International in 2004. Under CEO Richard Green, the company operated as a joint venture b ...

released two 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 The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...

. There are no subtitles, episodes are in 4:3 (the original format) and both box sets come with a booklet detailing each episode. Some episodes have been edited to remove pop music tracks that could not be cleared for DVD release, and studio scenes originally shot on video have been filmized. In 2018 the DVD rights were acquired by ''Eureka Entertainment''. Series five and six were released on DVD on 19 November 2018. Series seven and eight including the 1981 Christmas Special were released on 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 further series of Grange Hill released on DVD. In January 2021, Britbox announced that the first four series of Grange Hill will be available to stream. Series 5-6 were added in 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 will be added to BritBox & ITVX in January 2023

References

External links