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?

'Another Brick in the Wall' was Pink Floyd, not the Boomtown Rats. Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats played (the adult) 'Pink' in the film version of 'The Wall' which might be what you're thinking of.

The Rats sang 'I don't like Mondays' which was about a schoolgirl shooting people out of the window because she 'didn't like Mondays' - and would be similarly likely to attract parental disapproval over the negative attitude to education!

No, not sure my mum was aware of the story lines anyway.

No my Mum disapproved but when I got older I was able to.

Just seen the Gripper Stebson story on you tube.. the racism story is far cry from what you'd see now.

How so?

Yes. Because my Dad was a teacher and he said it made teachers look stupid. We got round this by having tea at my Nan's, and she was even more old school, and wouldn't let us watch ITV, because it wasn't as 'proper' as the BBC, so we got Grange Hill put on by default 🤣

I loved Justine and Tegs, anyone remember them. Mr Bronson was so evil.

Grange Hill yes
Tiswas no 😂

@ReneBumsWombats stories including characters using very racist & homophobic language & bullying. In a programme aimed at 10-13 year olds. I remember it being realistic at the time (although wrong). I'd like to thing society has moved on.

I was 15 when Grange Hill started and my brother was 13. Like many others on here, our mum was too busy cooking dinner to notice or care what we were watching on the black-and-white telly in the living-room, and our dad (who was older and would definitely have disapproved) didn't get home from work until its closing credits so was none the wiser about its contents.

I was in the Lower Fifth at a naice all-girls grammar school so it was nothing like my own school experience at all, but my brother - in third year at a rough, all-boys secondary - said it was very similar to his. Tucker even looked like him!

I have happy memories of an episode where the kids somehow "acquired in advance" what they thought was their upcoming geography exam paper, and were flummoxed by the difficulty of the questions in it, on topics they'd never heard of (it turned out they'd got hold of one for a much more senior year-group). The next morning, the catch-phrase, "What's the Coriolis Effect?" was all over my school...to the complete bewilderment of our geography teacher, who didn't have children and certainly couldn't be bothered with watching a programme about school life right after her own working day. When she was asked, "What's the Coriolis Effect?" for about the twentieth time that day, she erupted spectacularly.

Michael Sheard (Mr Bronson) played Hitler five times in a villainous acting career. Apparently George Lucas said his throttling by Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back was his favourite film death scene. It must have been great fun being his agent.

I remember an episode when they went on some kind of school trip to a farm and the Scouse lad (Ziggy Greaves?) saluted a particularly ugly cow with "afternoon Mr Bronson!" My brother and I fell apart laughing.

Fans of crime drama should check out A Touch Of Cloth which features some great gags relating to Grange Hill actors.

Michael Sheard was brilliant in 'Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'.

He also played the manager of the bus depot in 'On the Buses'.

I wonder what he thought about being type-cast as a villain or nasty authority figure (with excellent French and German language skills).

He probably loved it. Villains are far more fun to play.

I remember that one! I think the girl was Pakistani though, and spoke no English. A teacher had palled her up with one of Trisha’s friends who was actually of Indian-Ugandan heritage. The implication being that the teacher just assumed they spoke the same language as they had a similar skin colour…

I also remember Trisha telling their form tutor that Benny was bunking off as some kids were picking on him for being ‘coloured.’ And the teacher was sympathetic enough but pretty much told him he’d have to ignore it and learn to put up with it.

DH has got Micheal Shepard’s autobiography, I must thumb through it and see what he says.
Watching it now, as an adult and a teacher, I side with Mr Bronson most of the time.

I've a memory of someone dead rolling out of a car door?was it Mr Bronson?we watched it,defo a tea time cooking thing,but remember that was really awful!
Talking if secondary school shows on BBC,we are loving class dismissed here these days!

I don't remember that, but I stopped watching in 1986. Once I was at a rough comprehensive school in real life, Grange Hill started to seem a bit tame!

The only death I remember was Jeremy, a cousin of Jonah's (I think) who drowned in the swimming pool.

As much as my Mum hated me watching it, the Zammo storyline made me terrified of all things drug related.

You tube has shown me, it was danny kendell rolling out of a car dead. grim stuff for kids teatime!

Mmm, Mother tried half heartedly to ban us watching it but failed miserably due to its scheduling really.

She was far more vehement about us not reading Enid Blyton or endless pony books, and still failed there too actually, such was my determination to read absolutely any old crap I could lay my hands on.

Also the nightmares I got reading some of HER stuff gave my Dad a bit of an 'I told you so' moment and she laid off a bit - I was going to read, she had fought for me to read, when the penny dropped I was away and reading ANYTHING I could and reading age groups way way above my actual age... (off the actual chart by 9).

Also at heart the concept of banning books was anathema to her, so I think she settled with letting me read stuff but pulling faces over it, rather than trying to stop me reading stuff and being a book censor!

Also the nightmares I got reading some of HER stuff gave my Dad a bit of an 'I told you so' moment

Like what?

I think it was in the second or third series, the character Duane had his bike stolen at school, hr went into school the next day, the teacher asked about it. He said his dad gave it to him as he had his bike nicked. The teacher just shrugged.

Imagine that today..🤔

Neville Shute, Agatha Christie, Tolkien, classic stuff like Jules Verne, Jack London, whatever was on the shelves really but much more for teens and adults than the 8 to 10 age bracket.
Our house was wall to wall book shelves (friends would say 'ooh Widdlin' lives in a library...' )..

My Dad caught me hiding books I was currently reading, once I'd admitted defeat and decided to go to sleep for the night... I would tuck them underneath stuff on the floor by my bed or the shelf behind my bed so that the contents couldn't somehow come and get me in my sleep. He thought it was just scary cover art at first but it wasn't that at all, it was what was IN the book.

Don't think I ever had nightmares from the themes Grange Hill covered!

Neville Shute, Agatha Christie, Tolkien, classic stuff like Jules Verne, Jack London, whatever was on the shelves really but much more for teens and adults than the 8 to 10 age bracket.

Those books gave you nightmares?

Fun fact: the original theme tune was called Chicken Man and it was composed by Alan Hawkshaw for a music library of theme tunes. I always liked how catchy and quirky it was, but I never thought it suited the programme.