Grange Hill

[biggytitbo]

I always remember Ro-land bunking off school, and watching Bagpuss or summit eating bananas and crisps.

I remember when someone discovered his carrier bag full of mars bars and he was devastated.

[MidnightShambler]

I loved Ziggy and his mate, I think his name was Terry (John Alford played him, anyway). Favourite episode was the one where Trevor got pissed and nearly died of hypothermia on some rocks.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Ah yes, the Kendall vs Bronson era was magic. The sheer theatrical malevolence Michael Sheard infused Bronson with was a thing to behold.

"It is time that young man...was bought...into liiiiiine!"

I still can't believe this what they went with for the title sequence in the latter years. Desperate, feeble attempt at relevance.

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

The actual peak was when Kendall stole Mr Bronson's car and Bronson came out to the car park to find no car and a white outline painted where the car used to be, and his shout of "Kendalllllll!!!!" as the camera pulled back to infinity.  (Assuming I've remembered it correctly.)

Crikey those opening titles are dreadful.  The theme tune is oddly familiar though.  Was the tune introduced before that particular title sequence because I've heard the tune before but never seen those titles.

[imitationleather]

The original theme was brought back for the final series, which apparently mainly focussed on pre-secondary school pupils:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsKmSC_reM4

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Crikey those opening titles are dreadful.  The theme tune is oddly familiar though.  Was the tune introduced before that particular title sequence because I've heard the tune before but never seen those titles.

They had that theme tune from about 1989, I think.  It replaced the bass keyboard/sharpened scissors original.  The version in that link is an upgraded version of the tune, and those credits post-date my final viewings of the show, in 1991.

[A Hat Like That]

The actual peak was when Kendall stole Mr Bronson's car and Bronson came out to the car park to find no car and a white outline painted where the car used to be, and his shout of "Kendalllllll!!!!" as the camera pulled back to infinity.  (Assuming I've remembered it correctly.)

Crikey those opening titles are dreadful.  The theme tune is oddly familiar though.  Was the tune introduced before that particular title sequence because I've heard the tune before but never seen those titles.

Its something like Pebble Mill, isn't it? NO. WAIT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0JLH7M4Dg4

Cagney and Lacey.

[kalowski]

The actual peak was when Kendall stole Mr Bronson's car and Bronson came out to the car park to find no car and a white outline painted where the car used to be, and his shout of "Kendalllllll!!!!" as the camera pulled back to infinity.  (Assuming I've remembered it correctly.)

Didn't Danny end up dead in that car. No theme music that week: fade to black.


I liked Mucker, Trucker, Ducker and Sucker.


And Spazz.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Stewpot rubbing shoulders with an Oscar winner.

Kin hell, I never realised Mark Kemp was in Grange Hill.

[BritishHobo]

Cracking fun to read this - my Grange Hill era was the video-game-credits years - the end of the era of Baz and the like, and the start of the era of Togger (who I believe was meant to be the nephew of one of the original cast), Tanya, Annie - latter Togger's brother Tigger (yep) - so I always have an odd perspective on it. To me as a kid, that was Grange Hill, but obviously looking back as an adult, that's Grange Hill nearly three decades into its run, on its last legs really, changed massively from what it was originally. A lot wackier and sillier, I believe, compared to clips I've seen of the original. Still though, I absolutely loved it, and it could be effectively dramatic at times. Who could forget for example, when Tanya's French internet boyfriend tried to kidnap her during a cycling PE session.

Nah, to be fair, in spite of stuff like the video game credits, there were some storylines that had an impact on me, like the bullying storyline in a later series that culminated in Alex packing a backpack full of books and flinging himself into the school pool. That really affected me as a kid, although watching the clip now, it looks a lot shonkier.

I'll say I'm sure it was nowhere near the quality of the original series, but I think as a show for young teens, it did do a good job of mixing daft, fun storylines with more real, serious issues without ever coming off as too preachy.

[Mister Six]

They had that theme tune from about 1989, I think.  It replaced the bass keyboard/sharpened scissors original.  The version in that link is an upgraded version of the tune, and those credits post-date my final viewings of the show, in 1991.

Here's the original 90s one, complete with weird atonal robot fart noises: https://youtu.be/zwuJfJLtusg

Wish it had the proper titles, which were all in shades of grey and purple, having been video processed to fuck. Horrible, dour thing, always a real downer having to choose between that and miseryfest Home & Away before jaunty, comforting old Neighbours turned up.

EDIT: Ah, here we go - lots of miserable gloomy shots of corridors. Just what I want to watch as I have my tea. https://youtu.be/_zEQ6ehAhqk

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Wish it had the proper titles, which were all in shades of grey and purple, having been video processed to fuck. Horrible, dour thing, always a real downer having to choose between that and miseryfest Home & Away before jaunty, comforting old Neighbours turned up.

EDIT: Ah, here we go - lots of miserable gloomy shots of corridors. Just what I want to watch as I have my tea. https://youtu.be/_zEQ6ehAhqk

The original credits included a footballer elbowing another one in the face, on purpose; two lads kicking the shit out of each other; a teacher approaching an inattentive pupil with the clear intent of assaulting him; and, last, but not least, a Michael Jackson lookalike pupil subject to a racist attack by a hurled fork and sausage.  The one thing both sets of credits had in common were theme tunes whose amiability seemed at odds with the accompanying visuals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9YnZP3meMk


EDIT: did anyone else find it comical the way the black lad's eyes bulge and he shows his teeth in a shocked grimace, when the sausage gets thrown?

[Replies From View]

I remember that for some series those opening titles had a different kind of effect than in other series - like an added crash zoom or camera shake or something.

[gilbertharding]

I'm thinking there HAS to be a way of finding a picture of the girls from Grange Hill I definitely remember fancying when I was also at school (we're talking 1986/87) without ending up in custody Pete Townsend style, but I'm not going to risk it.

Oh, OK: http://www.grangehillevents.co.uk/pupils-1985-89-grange-hill-c/4578312860

Come on down, Laura Reagan. Come on down, Julia Glover.

Grange Hill started the year before I went to Secondary School, so I found it a terrifying watch - like I assumed it was a documentary of real life in Big School, with wall-to-wall bastards, massive bawling teachers, drownings etc etc. I knew my blazer would be bottle green though.

[Morrison Lard]

Bullet Baxter chinning that arsehole teacher


"Mr Hicks! Come here"

*WHACK*

"Slip on the wet floor did you?"

[Norton Canes]

Bullet Baxter chinning that arsehole teacher

Paul "Not the mind probe!!" Jericho IIRC.

[Glebe]

That mean-ass bassline and a flying sossie!

[Replies From View]

I'm thinking there HAS to be a way of finding a picture of the girls from Grange Hill I definitely remember fancying when I was also at school (we're talking 1986/87) without ending up in custody Pete Townsend style, but I'm not going to risk it.

I don't know whether it's due to the low resolution of the uploaded episodes, but whenever I watch any from the era corresponding to my childhood I always feel like the children in Grange Hill are older than me / my age.

[Shit Good Nose]

I started watching about halfway through the Zammo, Ro-Land and Bronson years - where it seemed to be pretty bleak every fucking episode - through to the mid to late 90s, post theme tune change and when they introduced mild swears (christ, crap, bloody and arse), stopping about the time Desmond "went to try my luck in Hollywood with moderately whelming success" Askew left.

My memories of it are limited to Gonch Gardner (the actor having to change his name later cos it was John Holmes) and his band of con artists; that one drowning in the swimming pool; that pseudo Bronson replacement who randomly turned up on NTV some years later and quickly got annoyed with Noel and ripped out the hidden camera (almost certainly contrived, but chuff knows why - maybe a last minute replacement after the intended family blew up or summat) and then became a dentist or chiropodist and semi-pro poker player; and Trevor Cleaver and/or his mate drifting out to sea on a big yellow inflatable.

Oh, and Lee Cornes as Mr Hankin of course.

And Kevin Bishop, who I can't remember if he's a CaB favourite or not.


As an addendum, some years ago I saw Bad Manners and yer man Erkan Mustafa was depping for an ill Buster Bloodvessel.  And a pretty bang-up job he did too.


All dead now, of course.  Except, ironically, the one that drowned in the swimming pool.

[pigamus]

Come on down, Laura Reagan. Come on down, Julia Glover.

Laura Regan was extremely pretty, wasn't she? I also had a strange crush on Ruth Kelly for some reason.

[kalowski]

I'm thinking there HAS to be a way of finding a picture of the girls from Grange Hill I definitely remember fancying when I was also at school (we're talking 1986/87) without ending up in custody Pete Townsend style, but I'm not going to risk it.

Oh, OK: http://www.grangehillevents.co.uk/pupils-1985-89-grange-hill-c/4578312860

Come on down, Laura Reagan. Come on down, Julia Glover.

Grange Hill started the year before I went to Secondary School, so I found it a terrifying watch - like I assumed it was a documentary of real life in Big School, with wall-to-wall bastards, massive bawling teachers, drownings etc etc. I knew my blazer would be bottle green though.

Jackie Wright!

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Wonder if the 'Ro-land, Ro-land' girl ended up doings robot/AI voices in sci-fi films?

[Shit Good Nose]

Wonder if the 'Ro-land, Ro-land' girl ended up doings robot/AI voices in sci-fi films?

Well, her name is Simone.  Sim One.

According to the Grange Hill wiki she is (/was - it was probs written about 20 years ago) doing voiceover work.

[BritishHobo]

Someone else here must have been shaped by the Togger years, right? Togger photoshopping a giant hamster on top of Grange Hill to try and scare Tanya's French boyfriend away? Togger trying to find buried treasure on the school grounds? Togger embarking on a quest to clean up the school loos? The love triangle with Baz and Tanya that culminates in cheeky chappy Togger accidentally murdering Baz during a school football match?

[BritishHobo]

Some plot descriptions to show what you idiots missed out on by not being born later:

Tigger makes fun of a guard dog outside the travellers site. The dog chases Tigger and Alex, run in front of Kathy's car and she does an emergency stop. The dog ends up in the playground, but a boy makes the dog go home, much to Emma's fascination.

Kyle ends up putting a gypsy curse on Chloe.

Emma uses of a home pregnancy test kit. Ed and Tigger perform an impressive magic trick on the radio. Tanya is shocked at the hairdressers.

[imitationleather]

Check out this sizzler from 1997:

Lauren and Carlene dress up for a party, are mistaken for prostitutes by the police, and Lauren is strip searched.

Nice.

[DrGreggles]

Watched it for a few years probably aged 11 to 14, but can't really recall much about it.

There was the Zammo smack stuff, Mr Bronson v Danny Kendall, and a dark-haired lass I fancied.
I think she was called Georgina. Not sure if that was the character or the actress.
Definitely had a thing for her though but, you know, at that age it didn't take much.

JUST SAY NO more wanking ...for a bit.

[imitationleather]

It appears that the move to Liverpool happened the year I did my GCSEs.

Why... Why... Why was I still watching Grange Hill at that age?!

[Mister Six]

The original credits included a footballer elbowing another one in the face, on purpose; two lads kicking the shit out of each other; a teacher approaching an inattentive pupil with the clear intent of assaulting him; and, last, but not least, a Michael Jackson lookalike pupil subject to a racist attack by a hurled fork and sausage.  The one thing both sets of credits had in common were theme tunes whose amiability seemed at odds with the accompanying visuals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9YnZP3meMk

Ah, but that's all larger-than-life, (literally) comic-book action and romps, isn't it? Made school look like boisterous fun. Whereas the 90s ones were all gloomy corridors and kids tapping on computers and crushing coke cans. Miserable, mundane, moribund. Just like proper, real-life school. Overwhelming sense of claustrophobic gloom. Grey skies over wet tarmac. Monday morning eternal.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

It appears that the move to Liverpool happened the year I did my GCSEs.
!

I heard of the move to Liverpool, years after I'd last watched.  Was it overtly stated that the school itself had moved from London, or was nothing said, and it therefore implicitly purported that the school had always been there?  If the latter, that was surely a gross abandonment of continuity, as the original was clearly set in London.

[imitationleather]

I heard of the move to Liverpool, years after I'd last watched.  Was it overtly stated that the school itself had moved from London, or was nothing said, and it therefore implicitly purported that the school had always been there?  If the latter, that was surely a gross abandonment of continuity, as the original was clearly set in London.

Nowt was said. It was supposed to begin including pupils from all over the country and have the school set in some generic English place, but due to pesky child unemployment laws they quickly realised this wasn't possible. If I recall correctly (I shouldn't be able to recall it at all, I was far too old to be watching), they explained the school changing appearance by having it blow up in a previous series and after the move it has been "repaired".