Save Grange Hill?

The BBC announced yesterday that they were not going to make any more series' of Grange Hill. This news came at a time when the show was celebrating its thirtieth year on television. The reasons behind the move are cited to be because the show has become out of date.

And I couldn't agree more.

Don't get me wrong - I loved Grange Hill when I was younger but has anyone who is trying to save it seen it recently?

I first started watching it during the eighties. It was at the time when the series was tackling issues of drug use and there was tons of publicity about the chracter, Zammo, who had become a heroin junkie.

I was young and this storyline was my introdction to the dangers of using drugs. The show served a purpose despite the controversy it caused.

Back in 1990, we were in junior school and we were preparing to move to high school and one of the teachers came to give us a talk. I remember someone asked if it was like Grange Hill. I'll never forget her response. She denied it declaring that nothing that happens in Grange Hill is realistic.

I say 'bullshit'.

In my five years at high school I saw almost evcerything that the show had written in its scripts. I witnessed bullying, drug taking, teenage pregnancy and everything in betweeen.

It was real despite what the critics claimed.

But, I do believe it should leave our screens for good.

I don't remember the last time I watched it but when I did they had done something dreadful with it.

They had moved the school!

The series was set in London but for some strange reason they were now in Liverpool with the same teachers. That, to me, was the last straw. They had obviously run out of ideas and moving to a new city was their idea of a fresh approach.

The most ironc thing about being a fan of Grange Hill was that I stopped being a hardcore fan at the same time I started high school. Ir may have just been coincidence that the show lost its appeal to me as soon as we made it to the 1990's. Or it may have been that I was actually living it and didn't need to watch anymore.