Reality leaves Grange Hill behind

Published on Wednesday 6 February 2008 20:25

JUST as the gritty realism of Z Cars replaced the cosy television image of Dixon of Dock Green, so the advent of Grange Hill in 1978 forever banished the idea that TV school- children were little angels or swots.

The early Grange Hill storylines portrayed an inner-city comprehensive complete with drug-taking, bullying, smoking and teenage pregnancy. It was a revelation. Perhaps a revelation too far, as critics complained it acted as a negative role-model for a generation of pupils thereafter.

But now the bell has been rung on Grange Hill and the last class is about to graduate. The BBC has decided to axe the iconic school drama after 30 years. In truth, Grange Hill has lost its way. The as-it-is storylines have been replaced by mild comedy, possibly because the disruptive behaviour and classroom language of 2008 could not be broadcast before the evening watershed – it might shock parents too much. Anyway, who would want to watch storylines featuring the endless examinations pupils now have to take; or glacial episodes based on the non-competitive sports now played in schools lest the children's frail egos are hurt by losing?

Grange Hill will be missed – but probably only by grown-ups who remember its (and their own) youth through rose-coloured spectacles. The truth is that in 2008 Zammo would have forsaken his television set for a games console.