Grange Hill fans were delighted last year when the return of the popular BBC children’s drama was announced.
Creator Sir Phil Redmond confirmed that work on a film was underway, with the reboot expected to hit our screens sometime in 2023.
Fuelling speculation of original cast returns, fans have been eager to find out more about the Grange Hill reboot and what they can expect.
READ MORE: Sir Phil Redmond hints at potential Brookside return after Grange Hill film news
On the 45th anniversary of Grange Hill’s first episode (February 8, 1978), Daily Star takes a look at everything we known about the upcoming reboot.
When did Grange Hill originally air and what was it about?
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Children’s TV drama Grange Hill first aired on the BBC on February 8, 1978.
It was created by Sir Phil Redmond, who was behind other popular TV series including Channel 4 soaps Hollyoaks and Brookside.
The programme followed the everyday lives of young people attending the fictional Grange Hill comprehensive school in North London, and their teachers.
Grange Hill tackled a number of issues including bullying, conflicts, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, death and grief during its 30 years on air.
Who starred in Grange Hill?
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Grange Hill launched a number of young stars to fame from its original cast, including future EastEnders Mark Fowler icon Todd Carty.
Todd became such a Grange Hill favourite that he event landed his own spin-off show, Tuckers Luck, which ran for three years between 1983 to 1985.
Another character that was synonymous with Grange Hill was Samuel ‘Zammo’ McGuire, played by Lee MacDonald.
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During his time on the programme between 1978 to 1984, Lee’s character Zammo was at the centre of a hard-hitting drugs storyline, with the actor and his fellow cast members becoming involved in a number of anti-drug campaigns encouraging young people to “Just say no.”
Other fan favourites to land their first roles in the series included Susan Tulley as Suzanne Ross, Erkan Mustafa as Roland Browning and Holby City’s Amanda Mealing as Tracey Edwards.
In later years, Grange Hill would also launch the careers of Coronation Street Katy Armstrong actress Georgia May Foote, TV and Radio host Reggie Yates and Emmerdale Scott Windsor star Ben Freeman.
Why was Grange Hill cancelled?
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In 2008, the BBC announced that Grange Hill would end after 30 years on air.
The broadcaster had decided not to re-commission the children’s drama, with CBBC controller at the time Anne Gilchrist saying that the move was to reflect children’s lives today more accurately.
“Part of CBBC’s reputation for reflecting contemporary Britain back to UK children has been built upon Phil Redmond’s brilliantly realised idea and of course it’s sad to say goodbye to such a much loved institution,” she told The Guardian.
“The lives of children have changed a great deal since Grange Hill began and we owe it to our audience to reflect this. We’re actively seeking out new and exciting ways of bringing social realism to the CBBC audience through drama and other genres.”
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Before the cancellation announcement, Grange Hill creator Sir Phil Redmond had called for the programme to come to an end after he felt the point of the children’s drama “had been lost.”
After being broadcast specifically on CBBC, which caters to a younger audience demographic, the last series saw a move away from the main school to a venue called The Grange, which was a creative learning centre focused on multimedia technology.
During an interview with The Observer, Sir Phil had originally planned for the storylines in Grange Hill’s 30th anniversary year to return to the gritty social realism it was known for during the eighties.
However, he explained that the storylines were going to be softened and feature characters aged 10 to 11 years old, instead of 15 to 16, to attract a younger audience demographic.
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Phil said: “I don’t like keeping things going when the point has been lost.
“I do now think the point of Grange Hill has been lost, and 30 years is a nice time for it to hang up its mortar board.”
He added: “We were all prepared to bring it right back to its original hard-hitting social edge for its 30th anniversary because we knew it should have got a lot of publicity and a lot of interest.
“It was at the very first storyline conference that we were told there’d been an editorial shift, so that went down like a lead balloon.”
Following Grange Hill’s cancellation, the final episode of the children’s drama aired on CBBC on September 15, 2008.
Is Grange Hill being re-booted?
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Yes, Grange Hill is coming back to our screens – but in a different format.
Creator Sir Phil Redmond announced in 2022 that the popular children’s drama will be rebooted as a film, with open auditions taking place throughout the past year for its young cast.
Speaking to The BBC, Sir Phil explained that the film will give viewers a “realistic view of what education is like now,” and has been written by the Grange Hill creator alongside original English teacher Mr Green star Celyn Jones.
“You just go out as honestly as you can and try to reflect society as it is, try to be as truthful as you can within the bounds of fiction and do the research properly,” said Sir Phil.
“One of the things I’ve always done is work with great young teams to actually deliver the vision.
“So we’ll just take a look at the way Britain is now, and not the way policymakers would like us to think it is. We will take a realistic view of what education is like now and what that means to kids going through it.”
Are any of the original cast returning?
(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Lots of the original stars of Grange Hill have expressed an interest in returning for the film reboot, including Zammo star Lee McDonald.
Following the reboot announcement, Lee told the BBC that he “would love to do it.”
It would not be the first time that the original cast have reunited, with Lee sharing shared a photo of a cast get together in 2017 for BBC Children In Need, including co-stars Alison Bettles, Todd Carty, Erkan Mustafa and the late Gwyneth Powell.
Grange Hill fans could not get enough of the sweet snap, with one saying: “Good memories.”
“That’s a great pic,” said a second, adding “I love watching old episodes of Grange Hill. It’s like seeing all your old schoolmates again, only difference is that I didn’t actually know any of them for real!”
However, Sir Phil admitted during an appearance on BBC Breakfast that he had a “tough decision to make” about which characters to bring back for the reboot.
He said: “I’ve got to sit in a room and make a decision who will and who will not and that’s going to be really difficult.
“We won’t be able to bring back all of them but it’s going to be fun.”
When will the Grange Hill reboot air?
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No official release date for the Grange Hill reboot has been given yet, but it is expected to be sometime in 2023.
Open auditions and production for the film were getting underway in 2022, with Sir Phil telling Metro last year: “We’ve only just started working through the script and we go into production this year for release next year.”
While excited fans may have to wait a while for the Grange Hill film, it may not be too long before the familiar sounds of the drama are back on our screens again.
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