Early Grange Hill

[Sebastian Cobb]

I'm from the 'MIDI piano theme' era of the show, and this all seems very rough around the edges in comparison. Everything about the school in the '90s was completely sterile and bland.

Same here. I can't remember much of it at all apart from when that kid took some blotters and had to be coaxed off a ledge by that girl with Cerebral Palsy. Oh and the bloke who was Jay's dad in the inbetweeners knocking his son about.

Byker Grove was a much better show.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

I remember in the early days, Stewpot Stewart came up on Duane Orpington from behind in the street, asking what sort of trouble he had got in with his dad over some escapade.  Duane turns round-and he has a black eye.  This isn't part of a long-running theme of an abusive father, just a single, casually documented, incident.  Also, Mr Hopwood wallops Alan Humphries in the face when catching him smoking behind a desk lid in a deserted class during break.  A little later, we see this has swollen Alan's eye shut.  Then, there was Booga Benson and friends battering Tucker unconscious after chasing him through the corridors at night just after a school disco.  Early Hill was rough stuff at times.

[BlodwynPig]

I'm from the 'MIDI piano theme' era of the show, and this all seems very rough around the edges in comparison. Everything about the school in the '90s was completely sterile and bland.

By Alan Hawkshaw
https://youtu.be/XwCmDEmyae8

[biggytitbo]

- Hiding a donkey
- Ghost turns out to be caretaker
- Punching the PE teacher
- Passing a porn mag around class
- Mr Bronson cries cos Danny is dead
- You do like me don't you Ro-land
- Lets go to the life drawing class so we can see a naked lady ohh no it was a bloke
- What the FUCK is this new theme tune?


It was pretty realistic as all those things happened in our school too.

[Shit Good Nose]

Early ("Tucker era") Grange Hill was mostly shit cos the main stories basically revolved around Tucker and whichever girl/teacher/rival he was involved with at the time, and there wasn't much else.  Peak GH was in the 80s - Ro-land, Zammo, Gonch Gardner, Trever Cleaver, Gripper, Bronson etc.  It did indeed go VERY quickly downhill in the 90s.  On the other hand, the 90s was when that weird pseudo-Bronson replacement teacher was on there[nb]can't remember his name, but glasses, maths, professional gambler and accupuncturist [or summat] in real life, was also the famous NTV when he told Noel to do one and then broke the camera off[/nb] and they also introduced mild swearing - words like bloody, crap, sod and, if memory serves, the odd christ.  I doubt they could do that now.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

- What the FUCK is this new theme tune?


It was pretty realistic as all those things happened in our school too.

There was some theme tune playing in mid-air when you started your school day?

[biggytitbo]

There was some theme tune playing in mid-air when you started your school day?

Yes?

[Brundle-Fly]

Grange Hill's original theme tune was interesting. Part deep-bass notes on an electronic organ; part trumpet; & that bit that sounded like someone like someone scraping two blades together or something, which always gave the tune a rather individual feel.

Alan Hawkshaw's 'Chicken Man' tune was also bizarrely adopted as the original theme to ITV charades panel show, Give Us A Clue. This is a ropey arrangement compared to the GH version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTvAf2JipxQ

[Quincey]

Watched the one with Mr Hicks where Mr Baxter

Spoiler alert

gives him a really light punch

[close]

and he

Spoiler alert

falls to the floor

[close]

and Baxter quips

Spoiler alert

"Slipped on the wet floor, did you"

[close]

.

And the one where the

Spoiler alert

nonce

[close]

tries to lure in two first years to his rape den by asking them

Spoiler alert

to look for his do

[close]

g.

[Quincey]

That's about the worst Grange Hill opening gambit I have ever heard in my entire life.

Can you write a better one?

[Sydward Lartle]

A few years ago I went on a massive nostalgia binge and watched several early series of Grange Hill. I'm tempted to say 'time hasn't been kind to it' and leave it at that, but I did find a few redeeming features hidden among the shonky acting, the unbridled savagery (incidentally, the actor who played the utterly demented Booga Benson also turned up in a BBC live-action adaptation of Pinocchio, appropriately playing Lampwick - the poor sod who turns into a donkey), the casual racism, the 'little bit o' politics!' tub-thumping and the general miasma of Thatcher-era sludge that screamed 'everyone involved in this programme is using it as a training ground for Eastenders' - a series I have always hated with a burning intensity.

First of all, Tucker Jenkins may well have been a complete twat, but he was a charming twat with his heart in the right place. A lot of this was down to Todd Carty being a bloody good actor - as well he should have been, because by my count, he was already an old hand of British films and telly by 1978. (He's the kid who pees on the floor in assembly in the Please, Sir! film - and that was in 1971!) Terry Sue Patt (Benny Green) was almost his equal - he was one of the 'unwary' children in the notorious 'Dark and Lonely Water' public information film, which aired from '73 onwards. I always found fat Alan likable, even when I was about four and watching the series with unbridled horror at the prospect of 'big school' actually being like this. (It was.)

Being a fan of Heart (yeah, yeah, fuck off or I'll set Kane Jones on you - he knows where it's at) I also got a few laughs out of the fact that there's a subsidiary character in the first series called Ann Wilson. It's always good to see Roger 'Mr Bastard' Sloman in anything, of course, and the guy who played Jenkins and company's form teacher in the first series could easily have played Roger Mellie in a live-action series based on the Viz characters.

Doyle, who was supposed to be the bully, was as unconvincing as it gets. He had a particularly unfortunate Tim Brooke-Taylor in 1975 pageboy haircut, for starters, and the poor lad had zero screen presence. The highlights for me were the near-riot in the swimming pool and the awkward posh kid taking a tumble off a roof somewhere. The rest of it was a bit of a plod. I can't remember her name, but the girl with the Farrah Fawcett hairdo who was supposed to be Tucker's sworn enemy was a really shit actor as well - every sodding episode of the second series had her going on and on about the 'skew caahn-suw' (school council) until you just wanted to reach into the screen and throttle her. And don't get me started on Susan Tully. Ugh.

The best actors among the staff, of course, were Michael Cronin as Bullet Baxter and the ever-reliable Timothy Bateson as 'Tom-Tom' the long-suffering caretaker. I stopped watching Grange Hill as a child (and again as an adult) when they introduced Pogo Patterson. Not only could he not act worth tuppence, he also spoke as if he had a nose full of marshmallows - or 'barsh ballows', as the adenoidal little tick would no doubt have pronounced it. So yeah, I missed most of the Gripper / Roly / Zammo / Jonah era, save for reading about them in the Grange Hill annuals, which my parents still bought me every year, even though I'd have preferred Buster or Whoopee!

[Obel]

https://youtu.be/kB2Wxfu8zf4

Emotional footage of Cliff Lawton here, I guess shortly before he took up politics.

Also fun fact, Lucy is my older sister. My older brother was in the show around the same time, too.

[purlieu]

By Alan Hawkshaw
https://youtu.be/XwCmDEmyae8

He didn't write the MIDI piano theme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwuJfJLtusg

Written by Peter Moss. And completely and un-ironically one of my favourite pieces of music ever. Nostalgia at play there.

[The Duck Man]

I watched it when I was in my late primary/early secondary years around the turn of the Millennium. I remember, shortly after I grew out of it, Phil Redmond came back and revamped it. He moved the setting to Liverpool, which didn't make any sense, saying he'd always intended it be set there, and created a nephew for Tucker called Togger. Aside from being a shit choice of nickname, I remember it seemed like an archaic move - previously Grange Hill had been somewhat transgressive, it featured what felt like quite adult storylines and featured characters from tougher backgrounds than my own. Suddenly there's this gang of kids led by Togger who went off sticking signs on the back of teacher and scrumped for apples.

Depressing trivia, the actress Laura Sadler left the show in 1999 after her character Judi Jeffreys fell from a balcony. Four years later, Laura Sadler died falling from a balcony.

[Phil_A]

I think the last time I saw it the titles were now some kind of terrible videogame, because thats what da kidz like, isn't it, with their Streetfighters and their Nintendo Playstations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6yRhPP1gCk

It seems like they did eventually bring back "Chicken Man" as the theme after that, but the title sequence accompanying it was an utter mess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMBztUrBeO0

I mean really, what is that? Why are there evile clownes?

[imitationleather]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMBztUrBeO0

I mean really, what is that? Why are there evile clownes?

Oh come on. Everyone was into New Rave back in 2008, even the newborns that Grange Hill was aimed at by then!

[Brundle-Fly]

Depressing trivia, the actress Laura Sadler left the show in 1999 after her character Judi Jeffreys fell from a balcony. Four years later, Laura Sadler died falling from a balcony.

The day Laura Sadler's tragic death was reported I happened to be going to the theatre. Before curtain up, Lennie James came out on stage, read a eulogy for Laura and dedicated that night's performance to her. Very sad.

[Gulftastic]

The day Laura Sadler's tragic death was reported I happened to be going to the theatre. Before curtain up, Lennie James came out on stage, read a eulogy for Laura and dedicated that night's performance to her. Very sad.

He ruined that panto.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

there's this gang of kids led by Togger who went off sticking signs on the back of teacher and scrumped for apples.

I didnt see that era, but I suppose the sign said KICK ME HARD?  And 'scrumped for apples'!?  Hello!?  Were they ripping off old Beano stories from the 50s?  Suppose the local bobby gave 'em a good clip round the ear before sending them home for a good slippering from dad.

[purlieu]

Y'see, thanks to this thread, part of me wants to watch Grange Hill from start to finish now. Thanks, you bastards.

[imitationleather]

Y'see, thanks to this thread, part of me wants to watch Grange Hill from start to finish now. Thanks, you bastards.

You'll never do it!

[Gulftastic]

Y'see, thanks to this thread, part of me wants to watch Grange Hill from start to finish now. Thanks, you bastards.

You should stop at the point when the school bullies are running round the school in near enough full american football kits. It was gone by then.

[purlieu]

You'll never do it!

No, of course I won't, but I want to.

[Serge]

Peak GH was in the 80s - Ro-land, Zammo, Gonch Gardner, Trever Cleaver, Gripper, Bronson etc.  It did indeed go VERY quickly downhill in the 90s.

Yeah, I think Gonch might be my favourite character from all of Grange Hill - if anyone deserved a spin-off show, it was him.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Does anyone remember an episode where Trevor Cleaver taunted a teacher in class by saying something like, 'go home to your boyfriend'.  I  don't think the teacher was gay.  Cleaver was just trying to provoke him, as an insinuation of being gay still equated to an insult then (late-80s).  The teacher came over to him, saying nothing, but silently threatening him with a clenched fist very close to his face.  He seemed almost about to actually hit him.  Trev seemed really cowed, as did the rest of the class.

[GoodSpicey]

My favourite memory is a very posh and elderly teacher telling Mr  Baxter that the boys of Grange Hill had a fight with the kids from the rival high school. 'Really? Who won?' asked Mr Baxter.

My least favourite memory is the programme in general. I hated watching the Wednesday serials the children's department made for us 70s kids. They were usually featured angry adults threatening violence upon the kids and their tender behinds, something which was a regular experience in the 70s. Or am I mis-remembering? Grange Hill was therefore full of adult authority figures, who could barely tolerate the youngsters in their charge. Moustaches are usually an indicator of evil. Baxter's beard was full face and therefore he was exempted from my prejudice.

If there was an episode set during the holidays, there was bound to be a shop-lifting story, or jumping the barriers on the tube or trespassing on a building site, and this inevitably ended with the capture and punishment. Give me a cartoon or Johnny Ball anytime.

I was always aware this was set in a London school - am I right here? Therefore I never even attempted to compare their school with mine, especially when I reached high school.

As for Zammo and the drugs, I remember the scene chewing abilities of the policeman who arrested him.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Bullet Baxter's appearance didn't seem to change in about ten years of being in the series.

[Sydward Lartle]

He's more like Bullet Bin Laden nowadays.

[non capisco]

Does anyone remember an episode where Trevor Cleaver taunted a teacher in class by saying something like, 'go home to your boyfriend'.  I  don't think the teacher was gay.  Cleaver was just trying to provoke him, as an insinuation of being gay still equated to an insult then (late-80s).  The teacher came over to him, saying nothing, but silently threatening him with a clenched fist very close to his face.  He seemed almost about to actually hit him.  Trev seemed really cowed, as did the rest of the class.

Don't remember that but I dimly recall there being a gay teacher who was taunted during an intra-school football match by the rival school team all chanting "POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF!". One of the Grange Hill kids, in an "I'm Spartacus" moment, stood up and defiantly delivered the stirring line "He may be a poof.......but he's OUR poof!"

That might not have been Grange Hill, to be honest. But it was in something.

[Brundle-Fly]

Does anyone remember an episode where Trevor Cleaver taunted a teacher in class by saying something like, 'go home to your boyfriend'.  I  don't think the teacher was gay.  Cleaver was just trying to provoke him, as an insinuation of being gay still equated to an insult then (late-80s).  The teacher came over to him, saying nothing, but silently threatening him with a clenched fist very close to his face.  He seemed almost about to actually hit him.  Trev seemed really cowed, as did the rest of the class.

In 1992 I signed on for a bit and was made to participate in a job restart programme at some community centre in Finchley, North London. There was a really mouthy bloke who wouldn't shut the fuck up; making quips and comments throughout all the group consultations. He revealed on day 3 he was the father of the actor who played 'Trevor Cleaver' off of Grange Hill.

As you were.