For many young people, Grange Hill was the first gritty, hard-hitting TV show made for kids that tackled topics that had never been highlighted in children's television dramas before. Although ITV had tried something similar in 1977 with their school drama, A Bunch of Fives, this vanished without a trace after Grange Hill hit the screens.
The BBC show was one of the longest-running programmes on British TV and continued for an amazing 30 years, following its first airing in 1978. It was written by Phil Redmond, who is also the creator of Channel 4 soaps, Hollyoaks and Brookside. After grabbing the attention of generations of children, the final episode aired on 15th September 2008.
The series was set in the fictional London comprehensive school, Grange Hill, in Northam borough (also fictional). The plot followed pupils' day-to-day lives as they progressed through school and beyond. It wasn't afraid to tackle risky issues and didn't present an idealised image of schooldays as its predecessors had.
Perhaps the show's most famous and memorable character was Peter "Tucker" Jenkins, played by Todd Carty from 1978 to 1982. He starred in Grange Hill for the first four seasons, growing up before viewers' eyes - and even when he left school, he returned for many guest appearances throughout the years.
A rebellious pupil, he left school and became unemployed, mirroring real life scenarios for many school-leavers of the era. He even had his own spin-off series, Tucker's Luck, that followed his life after he left Grange Hill. Todd Carty later went on to join the cast of BBC1's EastEnders as Mark Fowler.
Playing Suzanne Ross from 1980 to 1984, fellow EastEnders star Susan Tully also started her acting career on Grange Hill. Like Tucker, she was a well-liked rebel who was famous for standing up to school bully Gripper Stebson, not to mention her long-running battle with head teacher Mrs McCluskey over pupils being allowed to wear their own clothes rather than school uniform. In Grange Hill, Suzanne left before sitting her exams - when Tully was offered the role of Michelle Fowler in EastEnders.
Among Grange Hill's most controversial plots was the story of Zammo McGuire who descended into the world of drugs and became addicted to heroin. Spanning over two series, the storyline that ran from 1986 to 1987 didn't glamorise drugs. Rather, it showed Zammo's downward spiral and demonstrated how addiction affected his relationship with his girlfriend and friends.
The show had its fair share of comedy, but particularly with two other popular characters. Hollo and Gonch were Grange Hill pupils from 1985 to 1989. Gonch was renowned for his many moneymaking schemes, which nearly always ended in disaster!
Cancelled by the BBC in 2008, bosses decided that Grange Hill had run its course, proclaiming it had nothing new to offer. Today, many TV school dramas such as Waterloo Road and Ackley Bridge tackle hard-hitting issues but as the forerunner, Grange Hill set the benchmark.
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