Grange Hill
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- For other meanings of Grange Hill, see Grange Hill (disambiguation).
Grange Hill is a British children's television drama series which is shown on BBC1. The series was created by Phil Redmond (also responsible for the Channel 4 dramas Brookside and Hollyoaks). Other notable production team members down the years have included producer Colin Cant and script editor Anthony Minghella.
The show began in 1978 and is one of the longest running television shows on British television. The drama is centered on a fictional comprehensive school (called Grange Hill), in east London (although when filming moved to Liverpool in 2003, it ceased to have any specific location), and follows the lives of the children as they progress through school.
The show has done many controversial storylines, ranging from students throwing benches into the swimming pool (1978) to rape (2001)to attempted suicide (2005), prompting many complaints from viewers.
The show spawned a successful spin off series called Tucker's Luck (1983-1985), and launched the acting career of Todd Carty. Also, the 1986 cast released "Grange Hill: The Album", with two singles: "Just Say No" (tying in with a character's heroin addiction) and "You Know The Teacher (Smash Head)".
Trivia
- Former cast member Laura Sadler died after falling off a building in June 2003... incidentally, her Grange Hill character was killed after slipping and falling out of a burning building.
- The theme used for the first 10 years of Grange Hill - "Chicken Man" by Alan Hawkshaw - was a library piece composed one hour before it was recorded during a session in Munich, Germany. Grange Hill was the first programme to use it as a theme followed by the popular quiz show Give Us A Clue, who wanted it despite it already being used on Grange Hill.
- Script Editor Anthony Minghella, who worked on the series for several years during the 1980s, later won an Academy Award for Best Director for the film The English Patient in 1996.
See also Byker Grove
External link
- Phil Redmond's Grange Hill website (http://www.grangehill.com/)
- Grange Hill Online (http://www.grangehill.net/), a fansite