VAIN

It’s been a week since Grange Hill closed its gates for the final time when the last ever episode screened on the BBC.

I watched a fair amount of the final season and I must say it was a truly undeserving anti-climax for a show that has been around for the last 30 odd years.

The final season was nothing but a mind-binder of surrealism, reduced cast, slapstick comedy and low budget cheesiness. The series did not feel like it was filmed at a school (most of the camera angles were close ups against any odd building to pass off as the outside of a school). The characters had no direction or continuous story arcs (except for the big guy getting the girl at last) and they were not easy to buy into like the characters of old.

I didn’t watch Grange Hill until probably about the late 80’s where I caught the tail end of the Zammo Maguire era and grew interested in the exploits of Danny Kendall and the year group that consisted of strong characters like Gonch, Ziggy, Trevor, Imelda, Ronnie, and of course Cally Dollington (who I must admit I had a crush on). I didn’t really get into this show as early as I could considering I hated school and the last thing I wanted to watch on TV was a show about one. At the time, senior school was around the corner for me so I guess the interest grew for me. 80’s Grange Hill was easily the best!

Back to the present day: I can honestly say that Grange Hill needed putting out of its misery, but in my opinion the series died in vain. Little to no effort was put in to make it any good and this whole 31st and final season of the show felt like an anti climax. Old cast members could have been brought in for cameos or perhaps a reunion, maybe the school could have actually been threatened to close or just something BIG! But no… A watered-down surreal comedy was the way forward it seemed (A poor man’s Parker Lewis Can’t Lose if you will).

The final episode had very little going for it but the little was good. Tucker’s appearance was good and he saved the day for his nephew Togger, but even that didn’t carry the show, The Roboto toy from Masters of the Universe makes a cameo appearance, and Togger pays homage to the first ever episode at the end (no spoilers!). The rest of the episode revolved around a weak bomb storyline and a love angle. That was it… nothing too epic to end a piece of TV history.

The potential was there to make a dying series go out in a blaze of glory and for one last time win current and old TV watchers back over. Grange Hill for me will go down in history as a good series that for most of its duration was entertaining, and amusing, but ended disrespectfully.

I prefer to remember the older stuff and the era of that older stuff. Thanks to the power of internet and dvd resources vintage Grange Hill has been immortalised for the audience of today and yesterday to look back on. Maybe the BBC will grow a set and release season 5 onwards on DVD, but that – is a separate topic altogether.

“Just Say No!”