Comments on: Grange Hill

By: Ljones

Ljones — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 21:01:29 +0000

Isn’t it intresting that this show along with “Top of the pops” (with the exception of xmas specials) which was watched and remembered by so many should by its end be so forgotten because it simply fell to pieces. Intrestring.

Ljones

By: Glenn Aylett

Glenn Aylett — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:11:32 +0000

Grange Hill lost a lot of its bite after the Zammo smack episodes and then moved on to repetitive and pointless storylines( the Harriet the donkey storyline was like watching grass grow). However, even though the show went into a decline after the mid eighties, most people my age have very fond memories of the Hill and at its height it was the greatest kids show ever.

By: Ken Shinn

Ken Shinn — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:14:45 +0000

In all honesty, I quite liked it. Although I did only see the last ten or so minutes. I personally found Tucker’s return quite moving, and it was a real pleasure to hear Chicken Man one last time. The real shame, as has been pointed out, is Redmond’s increasing tendency towards self-aggrandisement.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 08:56:19 +0000

Has anyone actually watched GH since about 1991? In all honesty it had been cruising along on autopilot for the best part of a decade and should have been scrapped years ago. I wonder also how long Blue Peter will carry on, given that it’s not much more relevant to todays children that GH became?

By: Simon Underwood

Simon Underwood — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:32:10 +0000

I’ve been revisiting some mid 90s episodes (and my teenage crush on the character Jessica Arnold) recently, and even though they were far different to the show I remember seeing when very young in the 80s (Gonch!) it was still very, very good drama.

This kept up for a few years – the last time I can seriously remember watching Grange Hill was the series with the Leah Stewart date-rape storyline and if I recall correctly, that series ended with an explosion too, which mainly seemed to endanger the characters of Vicky and, oh, some chap, was evil to begin with, had a running battle with the bespectacled science teacher who was a poet in Blackadder the Third, anyway he turned good and in trying to prevent the explosion they were caught in the middle of it.

I don’t think the next series even addressed the question of whether they lived or not. Pathetic, and a show of complete contempt for the audience. As soon as they tried to pretend Grange Hill was never in London, it was all over. (Where was Tucker’s Luck set, out of continuity-busting interest?)

By: Richie J Haworth

Richie J Haworth — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:51:13 +0000

I was shocked to watch the final episode (I haven’t caught an edition since about 2002), it was terrible and I agree with the article, in that there seemed to be about 8 pupils! Grange Hill was always good, entertaining TV, sometimes thought-provoking and sometimes just plain fun, but consistently good. I can still think of storylines right up to the late 1990s that were great. I think the BBC farming it out to Mersey TV was probably the first nail in the coffin – it seems from this article and what I have read elsewhere that Redmond just didn’t know what to do with it and only took it on to stop its cacellation. Perhaps it should have ended at its height (when the BBc decided not to make it in-house any longer) before being prolonged by Redmond, Mersey and Lime.

By: Rob Williams

Rob Williams — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:58:02 +0000

The fact is that CBBC has dropped its age range upto 12yr old meant that Grange Hill could not go anywhere as it used to. With Mr Redmond’s teenage baby with Channel Four, it was hardly surprising that they would move it to BBC Switch, so that it could tackle more meatier issues… Like another programme once said… Game Over