Overview
The drama was centred on the fictional comprehensive school of Grange Hill in the equally fictitiousSeries history
''Grange Hill'' was originally conceived by ATV writerFilm
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 theTelevision 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) inElstree 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 asLiverpool 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"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. ''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 andSpin-offs and merchandise
The show spawned a spin-off called '' Tucker's Luck'' (1983–1985), which ran for three series starringTitle 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" byHead 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 ''Video game
In 1987 aHome 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'',References
External links