What can I say about Grange Hill? Plenty...Okay, for those of you that have never seen it, Grange Hill was a children's TV drama set in an inner-city School set somewhere in North London. The show dealt with serious issues (bullying, racism, sexual harassment, young love, drug use, health issues from Nits to Bulimia and rival school fights). Both teachers and pupils were portrayed excellently by adult and child actors respectively and to anyone who was a pupil at such a school (modern comprehensive) will feel a jarring nostalgia when watching. What was most impressive was the memorable characters, Every type of teacher and pupil was represented here, the more famous being Peter 'Tucker' Jenkins, a lovable, streetwise rogue, Norman 'Gripper' Stebson, a nasty bully with a speciality in extortion and racism. Douglas 'Pogo' Patterson, a fun loving entrepreneur who tried to make a few pence selling whatever he could get his hands on. Roland 'Roly' Browning, a fat, bespectacled victim who suffered at the hands of Gripper. And teachers, Mr Hopkins, a firm but fair woodwork teacher, Mrs McClusky the stern head-mistress who took no nonsense from the pupils or teachers, but was approachable. Mr McGuffy, an art teacher who was liberal. Mr Baxter, the no-nonsense PE teacher with a (very) small soft side, and the terrifying Mr Bronson, an ultra-strict French teacher (former Latin Master at a grammar school) now forced to work with more rebellious working-class pupils, including his nemesis Danny Kendall, a true pint-sized rebel who suffered abuse from no one, and one of the best pupil characters in the show. All of them made their mark on whoever had the privilege of watching them at the time of airing.The most covered issue was bullying, and the retaliations from the more confident pupils, there were no shortage of bullies, or heroes. One scene in mind was when Gripper was trying to tax money from Roland who was buying some pens from Douglas 'Pogo' Patterson, a wannabe Donald Trump who would sell everything he could get his hands on. Pogo, who was slightly older than Roland attempted to stick up for him against Gripper, but ended up with a bloody nose. But Pogo's friends came to the rescue and suddenly Gripper was surrounded by his victims. Quickly stripped of his profits from extortion and given a threat of a good beating if he tried it again. Gripper temporarily shied away from the crowd, only to come back with a new motive for making other kid's lives a misery, Racism. The more famous issue was drugs, more specifically the addiction to Heroin by the once cheeky scrapper, Samuel 'Zammo' McGuire, who blasted onto the show in 82 with stink bombs in hand. As he got older, drugs took hold and the plot showed the full affect that drugs can have on addicts and their friends and family. I will never forget the shocking (and brilliantly acted) scene where Roly (now slightly older and wiser from his troubles with Gripper), working in an amusement arcade, finding Zammo strung out in the back room with a piece of tin foil and a rolled up paper in his hands after chasing the dragon. The whole plot gave birth to 'Just Say No'. A single recorded by the young actors, most of whom were involved in the plot, to spread the dangers of drugs. The lovely Allison Bettles (Faye Lucas in the show) sang lead on this. It got to Number 5 in the UK charts and was a huge success. Remember I mentioned Danny Kendall? His 'exit' was the most shocking to date. His rivalry with cold-shower disciplinarian Mr Bronson climaxed with Danny stealing Bronson's car (Drawing a white outline in his parking space)... and being found dead in the back seat after a neurological condition took it's toll. But that wasn't the first death, (A young lad fell off the roof of a multi-storey car park in 1980, and later in 1984, another young lad drowned in the school swimming pool trying to honour a dare). The show was raw (for it's time) and hard-hitting (Fights were realistic and language was 'borderline'). But it was required viewing for any English child growing up in the 80's or 90's.

I was at secondary school when Grange Hill was at its peak in the early eighties. The episode with the sadistic games teacher who knocks kids around I could identify with as I had a games teacher just like that for the first two years. Bullying, yes been on the receiving end of that for a couple of years so could identify with Roland Browning while despising the school bully Gripper Stebson, the show's most evil character ever, who became a racist thug in series six( yes we had a few National Front types in my school as well). Also we had our equivalents of lovable rogues like Tucker Jenkins and a mixture of authoritarian teachers like Mr Keating and wet liberals like Mr Sutcliffe( I had an English teacher just like him).You see Grange Hill worked so well and was so popular with teenagers because it reflected real life. Also fair play to the BBC for sticking with it as it was nearly cancelled in 1979 for being too controversial, and the show entertained generations of kids and curious adults for another 28 years. Nothing like it has never been made since.

The BBC in my opinion have totally lost the plot over the last few years, cancelling such classic TV shows like Grange Hill, Byker Grove, TOTP and even losing Neighbours to Channel 5 (although I wasn't a great fan of Neighbours though, so I was glad to see that one go!).The director general of the BBC should be sacked for the mess he's made over the past few years of what was regarded as such a high class institution, but has now gone right down in society, with the best new rubbish they can come up with is idiots like Jonathan Ross. I bet most of these top shows were axed just so they could pay this idiots wages (and then look what he does). I certainly don't agree that the BBC should have just suspended Rossy, they should have fired him, if the BBC had fired him the only job he would have got after his lewd comments would have been doing stand-up in front of a private audience as no other company would take the risk to re-employ him.The BBC need to stop and look at the mess they are making and to bring back shows such as Grange Hill which helped school children understand various things in school life. I only wish that they had covered Asperger's on Grange Hill a little earlier as I went through school with Asperger's and ADHD and most of the kids around me didn't understand me at all. Where as now thanks to Grange Hill covering this it seems that quite a lot of young people are fully aware of Asperger's and show some understanding towards the problems faced.

Perhaps its heyday is now in the past, but "Grange Hill" was long one of the most arresting and high quality soap operas on television. There was a fantastic mix of actors and actresses, and writing that confronted some of the major issues that teenagers have to deal with, but mostly without preaching and irresponsibility. I have to say that I view this approach as mostly being down to one man - Phil Redmond. (Surprise surprise, NOT Anthony Minghella!!) I rarely, if ever, watch "Brookside" or "Hollyoaks", but even these, his other two notable creations, display a similar innovative style. Top marks to the man who injected a bit of 'risk into 'youth culture' T.V!"Grange Hill" is now an institution, spawning many talented performers (and some not so... !) in its long running tenure. As far as I know, it's still going today as well! This is a series that speaks to young people as being the future of our society, not the curse of it. For that it should be applauded. Well done to the producers for maintaining such high quality standards.As an afterthought, why do my favourite characters never appear in a list of anybody else's favourites? I chiefly remember Justine and Georgina, and that probably has a lot to do with my sex, age and sexual orientation... !