Parents and Grange Hill

[dottypotter]

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

No but my friend wasn't allowed to watch it (1980s Zammo era)

I’ve been rewatching it on BritBox. It’s a bit flakey until you get to the Zammo/Gonch/Danny Kendall era. Watching Zammo’s decline is heartbreaking.

One thing that stuck in my mind though was a completely abandoned storyline. In the Tucker era they were teaching about sex and puberty. There was much made of getting slips signed by parents. One boy was shown at home all upset about this with his parents. He said that it’s not the same for him and he knows he’s not like other boys. The story was never mentioned again.

I was only 10 when they ran the heroin story so it was a bit old for me. My parents didn’t really want me to watch it (though didn’t outright ban it).

I was allowed in the mid-80s, so from about 8 or 9. I remember Zammo and the heroin storyline, Danny dying and so on.

I was allowed to watch it. I was 10 in 1978 so watched it from the start and all the good years.

Still watched it in the 90s as a young mum.

The minute it finished though my dad would want to watch the news.

I remember watching the first episode when I was 7. I remember my mum saying that they always say things are "schewpid" I denied this then Tricia said "That's schewpid!

I was 8 in 1978 and a latchkey kid. They had no idea what after school TV we watched or what else we did for the hour or so between when we got home and when teacher mum got home.

I don't that was unusual in 1978?

I was allowed once I was a bit older (teenage I think).

No, there was even another kids TV show called "Latchkey Children".

I remember Ro-land.

My parents wouldn't let me watch it....but probs mid-late 1980s when I'd have been watching

It was ridiculous that it was cancelled. They said it wasn't relevant to modern kids.

Nope, not allowed in our house. I'd watch whenever I got a chance though!

Is it weird that 45 years later I remember it started that 10 past 5?

I don’t think that happened.

Someone got pregnant a few years later, after Claire and Stewpot left.

I recommend the Sausage on a Fork Podcast where they interview loads of the cast.

I had quite a strict and sheltered upbringing but was allowed to watch it from the start - I was about 7 or 8. I've still got my Blue Peter Competition Winners badge from coming a runner up in a Grange Hill Christmas Storyline competition that was run in the first few years.

Oh The Gentle Touch was lovely with Jill Gascoine in,

Do you remember C.A.T.S Eyes that She was also in ?

Yes. I had to watch it at friends' houses.

Why aren't there any realistic kids shows featuring teenagers at school nowadays?

I wonder if it was about the time of section 28 being passed and so was abandoned?

He was looking stuff up in a medical dictionary and I got the idea it a medical problem he had. He was saying that he won’t go through puberty the same.

Fascinating, I never realised there were so many BBC 1 only families. I thought it was because my dad worked for the BBC in the early sixties he had a BBC1 only rule. It became BBC has priority later when us kids were older and we use to yell that at each other to turn off an ITV programme in our favour. According to my children I banned them from watching Grange Hill, but this is a lie 😂

I was allowed to watch it.
ITV wasn't really approved of. Adverts.

He was ill wasn't he?

My mum loved it and would watch it with us. No ITV allowed though and strict limits on how many programmes allowed a day so we had to chose wisely