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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Parents and Grange Hill

236 replies

dottypotter · 24/01/2023 20:36

For those who were growing up when Grange Hill started in 1978.
Did you parents try to stop you watching it?

OP posts:
ClaireEclair · 24/01/2023 21:26

My parents didn’t really pay attention to what we watched. They used to rent horror films for us and once tried to take us to a rated 15 film assuming it wouldn’t be a problem😂

JaninaDuszejko · 24/01/2023 21:28

Another BBC only household here, I didn't even know about Magpie until I was an adult. But no issue with Grange Hill.

ChaToilLeam · 24/01/2023 21:29

Yes, my mum worked in a high school and the real thing made Grange Hill look pretty mild, neither the kids nor the teachers even swore! 😂

But in our home Magpie and Tiswas also ruled. And we were allowed to sit up late and watch Hammer House of Horror.

Iloveabaconbutty · 24/01/2023 21:32

Not mine but DWs parents did. But they were both maths teachers in a comprehensive school!! They also couldn't stand Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" ("We don't need no education" etc) either when it was a smash No 1 hit in 1980. They thought it was a dreadfully bad influence!

She wasn't allowed to watch anything on ITV either. When I got to know them many years later they were much more chilled about watching a whole variety of television programmes themselves - including ITV!

SingingSands · 24/01/2023 21:33

No, my parents never censored Tv or books. Loved Grange Hill and Byker Grove.

BooCrew · 24/01/2023 21:34

I was born in 1981 and was never allowed to watch Grange Hill. My mum did relent and allow Byker Grove.

I also wasn't really asked to watch ITV 😂 The odd programme was approved, but definitely not most of it and absolutely not the Saturday night gameshow type stuff.

BooCrew · 24/01/2023 21:35

*wasn't really allowed, not asked

MaydinEssex · 24/01/2023 21:36

Mum97540 · 24/01/2023 20:40

No. My parents didn't really take any notice of what we watched.

Same here, I don't think there was anything wrong in it, I never stopped my son from watching anything on TV either, he loved Eastenders and re-runs of Only Fools and Horses growing up

Flanjango · 24/01/2023 21:36

I watched it as I wasn't allowed to watch itv (my parents objected to targeted adverts).

comeon2023 · 24/01/2023 21:43

Banned in my house too (in the 90s), mum said it would give us ideas and make us behave badly at school 🤣 we also weren't allowed to watch ITV because of the adverts!

NeverDropYourMooncup · 24/01/2023 21:45

It was on the BBC. That automatically made it acceptable for children as opposed to something on ITV, especially as the alternative would have been to switch it off, which she would never consider doing. I genuinely didn't know Tiswas, Magpie or HOW existed, which is the way she wanted it.

My brothers got around it on Saturdays, so I got to see everything in the afternoon/evening except Dukes of Hazzard, which she refused point blank to allow on the TV.

Throughout all this distaste for ITV, she watched Emmerdale and Coronation Street religiously, though.

halfsiesonapotnoodle · 24/01/2023 21:45

Oh I definitely wasn't allowed to watch it! Managed to sneakily, now and again!

bigbluebus · 24/01/2023 21:46

Amazingly I was allowed to watch it as there were many other things I wasn't allowed to watch/do. I think it must have been on whilst DM was in the kitchen preparing dinner and DF wasn't home from work.

Darhon · 24/01/2023 21:48

I was allowed. I was a massive goody two shoes
at school 🤣 so it had no impact. It was a brilliant show.

willstarttomorrow · 24/01/2023 21:48

We were a BBC family and I do not remember any real parental scrutiny of the 90 mins or so targeted tv after school. Within my team, people of a similar age, agree we watched all sorts of stuff because we just watched what our parents did after dinner/tea before bedtime. So a tv diet of Juliet Bravo, Hi-de-hi, That's life, Sorry, crap game shows and random TV dramas. And the news at 6pm and I think 9 pm. Most houses had one tv and of course no mobiles/ devices. So unless you were on the landline to a friend in the hall (who you had been at school with all day) this was your evening!

DietCock · 24/01/2023 21:49

My mum watched it with us. Happy days. We all loved it.

AnotherCasserole · 24/01/2023 21:50

Kids in my class weren't allowed to watch it but my Dad used to "mysteriously" get home from work in time for 5.10 on Tuesdays and Fridays so he could watch it 😂

Florenz · 24/01/2023 21:51

You would NEVER get a children's programme like Grange Hill today with kids getting pregnant, smoking heroin and the like. There'd be absolute uproar.

maddiemookins16mum · 24/01/2023 21:51

I remember the first episode (I was 13). Dad was a teacher, both parents quite happy for us to watch.

Fandabadobie · 24/01/2023 21:52

I had just started secondary school and watched it with y dad. It was just like school for me

Domino20 · 24/01/2023 21:52

Yes. I also wasn't allowed to watch Tiswas.
Utterly ridiculous.

JudgeRudy · 24/01/2023 21:52

I was in my early teens and wasn't banned from watching but it did kinda feel 'private', as in not something I'd have liked to have watched alongside my parents.

OoooohMatron · 24/01/2023 21:53

Yes and Eastenders. I don't think my Dad liked southerners!

WordtoYoMumma · 24/01/2023 21:54

I wasn't allowed to watch it either! But I wasn't really allowed to watch any television (unless it was something my mum wanted to watch!)

I was desperate to watch Grange Hill though, I feel like I missed out on a huge cultural experience I'm still bitter even now 😂

eatsleeppaddle · 24/01/2023 21:54

No but I wasn't allowed to watch Eastenders!

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