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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:
RosieBdy · 24/01/2023 21:55

I wasn't allowed to watch it...

bigButnotforlong · 24/01/2023 21:56

We weren’t allowed to watch itv either !!

I was so jealous of the kids who got to watch itv (I think it was things like Timmy mallet and count duckula? I couldn’t join in any playground conversations!)
DM said it was too common and we might see adverts and become demanding

She also said Um Bongo was ‘too common’ and all I wanted to do was drink um bongo and watch kids itv 😂

Iloveabaconbutty · 24/01/2023 21:57

Thinking on from my previous comment I remember enjoying it a lot. I watched during the Tucker Jenkins/Benny Green era when the same actor that played the German building site boss in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (British actor, can't remember his name) was the headteacher.

Iconic tune and opening credits too with that cartoon sausage on a fork dramatically appearing for some reason!

Changechangychange · 24/01/2023 21:57

We were allowed, but the kids on Grange Hill seemed like they were from another planet. I lived in a village in Sussex though, there’s a pretty massive gap between a village primary school and an inner London comprehensive. The kids all seemed really hard and scary. Same with Byker Grove honestly!

bensmokes · 24/01/2023 21:57

My parents didn't give a shit what we watched but we were latch key kids anyway so it's not like they'd have known.

I'm actually shocked at the number of posters who had parents standing over them after school in the negligent 80s and 90s!!

Harebrain · 24/01/2023 21:58

I wasn’t allowed to watch Grange Hill but weirdly, I watched every documentary made by Alan Whicker (including the one about the early 1980s gay scene in San Francisco) because they were educational! 😳

SallyWD · 24/01/2023 21:59

No

pigsinoodies · 24/01/2023 21:59

@bigButnotforlong OMG yes, anything at all that appeared on an advert was 'common'.😂

Florenz · 24/01/2023 22:00

Iloveabaconbutty · 24/01/2023 21:57

Thinking on from my previous comment I remember enjoying it a lot. I watched during the Tucker Jenkins/Benny Green era when the same actor that played the German building site boss in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (British actor, can't remember his name) was the headteacher.

Iconic tune and opening credits too with that cartoon sausage on a fork dramatically appearing for some reason!

Michael Sheard. He also played Hitler in Indiana Jones!

I start watching it in the mid-late 80s. They showed the entire run of the show at one point on Sunday mornings so I got to see the early ones with Tucker etc. It was quite a formulaic show really, a few archetype characters that they'd replace with new kids as basically the same character with a new name.

Davros · 24/01/2023 22:02

I was 18 when Grange Hill started. I was in flexitime and used to leave work early when it was on to see it. My parents didn't get a say as I'd left home by then Grin

Lovemelovemydoggie · 24/01/2023 22:04

No, wasn’t allowed to watch it.

pigsinoodies · 24/01/2023 22:05

@Iloveabaconbutty was it Mr Bronson the Deputy Head?

user1471453601 · 24/01/2023 22:05

I will forever be grateful for Grange Hill. I used to watch this with my daughter when she was growing up. It enabled us to talk about bullying, drug taking ect without me giving her lectures. So, neutral ground, if you like. It opened conversations that wouldn't naturally occur.

madamehooch · 24/01/2023 22:05

Born 1969 so watched it from the start. Friday nights, I watched The Sweeny and The Gentle Touch with my mum, accompanied by a packet of Frazzles and a Panda Pop so it was safe to say that my parents were pretty relaxed about viewing habits. In fact, my dad used to insist on me and my sister watching programmes on child birth which, bizarrely, always seemed to be on BBC2 after tea. It was the only time we ever volunteered to wash up!

PauliesWalnuts · 24/01/2023 22:07

Banned in our house. My dad walked in when we were watching it on his day off. Just in time to hear that Trisha teaching an African girl to say “shut your mouth” in a London accent. He was horrified and told us we weren’t to watch it because he didn’t want us “picking up slang”. I wouldn’t have minded but we were northerners - there’s no way we’d have said it like that!

ringoutsolsticebells · 24/01/2023 22:08

I went to a Convent boarding school and the nuns let us watch it. They were permanently threatening to stop us though

Soproudoflionesses · 24/01/2023 22:08

Yep.
Dad was a teacher at would hit the roof if it was on at home.
Literally never watched it

Belladonna208 · 24/01/2023 22:09

Nope - it was way tamer than the school I went to!!

StrawberryWater · 24/01/2023 22:09

Yes, I was allowed to watch it.

I have fond memories of it.

Then in the 90s it got crap so I stopped watching.

TokyoSushi · 24/01/2023 22:11

I watched it, I absolutely loved it!

I went to an all girls grammar school that was very strict and a bit odd, so my only understanding of 'normal' high schools comes from Grange Hill!

FunnysInLaJardin · 24/01/2023 22:12

We didn't have a telly! It was too lower class apparently

MattDillonsEyebrows · 24/01/2023 22:12

I have memories of not being allowed to watch it in the early days as my mum thought it was a bad influence on us. Although I deffo remember Gripper Stebson, and some Tucker Jenkins storylines when he was older, so I’m guessing she relented at some point, or I watched it at my friends houses.

I was born in ‘76, so wouldn’t have watched it right from the start, but I’m the youngest of 4, so I probably watched it earlier than my siblings.

I vividly recall the Zammo overdose though, scared the bejesus out of me!

Iloveabaconbutty · 24/01/2023 22:13

@pigsinoodies Mr Bronson! That's the one. And he was GH deputy head. Thanks too, to @Florenz too for reminding me the actor was Michael Sheard. Just looked him up on Wikipedia. Great actor. Shame he died when he was only 67.

LongLostTeacher · 24/01/2023 22:14

No, not allowed to watch Grange Hill. Or the Simpsons.

I felt guilty when I went to uni and watched the Simpson. 🤣

pastypirate · 24/01/2023 22:14

Omg my people! I wasn't allowed to watch it ever. It was the only bbc programme which was banned. All itv was banned