17 Facts About Grange Hill

Grange Hill is a British children's television drama series, originally produced by the BBC and portraying life in a typical comprehensive school.

Grange Hill was originally conceived by ATV writer Phil Redmond, who first approached various television companies with the idea in 1975, unsuccessfully.

Interest in Grange Hill was renewed in the late 1990s and the series celebrated its 20th anniversary with the introduction of sinister Scottish bully Sean Pearce, who carried a knife and slashed the face of a classmate.

Grange Hill returned on 14 April 2008 with its final series, including a return of the original theme music.

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.

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In 1981, Grange Hill moved to Holborn College in Greyhound Road, Hammersmith.

Change was explained on screen with an elaborate storyline whereby Grange Hill merged with rival schools Brookdale and Rodney Bennett to form a new school, Grange Hill.

In Series 8 the merger had taken place and Grange Hill operated as a split-site school; the former Rodney Bennett building being the lower school and the original Grange Hill building the upper school.

Grange Hill was, at this time, made as an outside broadcast in the same way as its stablemate, EastEnders.

Phil Redmond originally wanted children from all over the country to participate in the relaunched Grange Hill, having a variety of regional accents in the series as opposed to just the London area voices which had become associated with the programme; however, almost all new characters were exclusively cast from the north-west of England due to the logistics of the child employment laws.

Grange Hill 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.

Phil Redmond responded in the same article by calling for Grange Hill to be scrapped, saying the programme had been "robbed of its original purpose".

The documentary featured: auditions, rehearsals and filming for series 11, the child actors opinions on being tutored and chaperoned and what impact being in Grange Hill had on their schooling, as well as dealing with fame.

Grange Hill was the first programme to use it as a theme followed by the popular quiz show Give Us a Clue, whose makers used it from 1979 to 1982, despite it already being played on Grange Hill.

In 2001 a more colourful sequence was introduced, this was due to Grange Hill being broadcast in widescreen for the first time, the opening theme had been cut slightly shorter for the first time since 1990.

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.

Grange Hill had its own dedicated magazine, but this only lasted two issues and a holiday special.