Grange Hill in the 1990s

Did they know the show had been axed when they reverted to the original music for the last series.

Like was said above, I wonder what kids thought when the music suddenly completely changed to this unheard of tune

I know some are saying it was poor, but that 90s tune is still iconic in my eyes, and it must have been successful or they would have reverted back after one series.

Seem to recall reading somewhere (may have been on here) they knew it was going to be the final series.
In fact wasn't it one of those "we'll air two or three episodes on CBBC on BBC One and air the rest of the series on the CBBC Channel" things?

Having read up a bit tonight the last series was reworked to reflect CBBC now being aimed at 6-12 year olds, moving to The Grange, a multi-media site where Year 7s like to hang out and were frequently joined by Year 6's from a local primary. It basically only existed as they were contracted to produce it and though Phil Redmond signed it off he wanted to pull the plug as the show couldn't fulfil it's original premise under these new guidelines.

Ah yes, that was where it tried to do Byker Grove impressions, a show which itself gradually drifted away from its core concept to "focus on the area", though it's ending finished off the production company a year later.

Can anyone remember when there was that stupid tabloid story claiming the reason Ant & Dec bought the rights to Byker Grove after Zenith went bust was so they could keep it off the air? Even though it's not something they'd ever been ashamed of, and were always happy to talk about and send up, and they ended up putting numerous clips from the show on their website.

Thanks to the finder of the bar brawl scene on the previous page. Part of me recalls that it was toned down when the episodes got their usual repeat prior to the next series. I wonder if this is the original or the edit? In my memory the scene was more violent than the one shown here, but I was just an impressionable 10 year old at the time...

Also re theme tunes I was a child of both eras as I watched from the mid-80s until the mid-90s. I agree that we become misty-eyed about whatever evokes our childhood. But I do think Chicken Man was superior and the later theme now sounds more dated than it.

And there, sadly, is another thing that works against the 1990 theme: none of the title sequences it accompanied are quite as good or as memorable as the flying sausage.

I mainly grew up with the 1994 sequence - which like the theme must have been popular to some extent, as it lasted into the 2000s and thus became the longest-running sequence besides the comic book. While I certainly wouldn't call it a bad sequence, I *would* find it hard to disagree with those that say that very little about it screams "Grange Hill!" aside from the instances of the show's name. (Even the 1990 sequence features purple and yellow hues to match the colours of the GH badge, as well as a Routemaster bus.)

And it's no real surprise that four sequences were used in the first half of the 2000s: the '94 sequence was showing its age; the move to Liverpool was supposed to mark a fresh start for the show so the 2001 sequence couldn't really stay; and I'm probably not alone in considering the 2003 sequence - even with its nod to the sausage - to be the blandest of the lot.

But I still say the 1990 theme is great (while, of course, absolutely respecting the opposite view). I rate it higher than "Now Get Out of That" (Andi Peters must have *really* liked that tune if he could bring it back for *his* revamp of TOTP) and the 1994 Tomorrow's World theme (er, how does that one go again?). If GH's classic era had continued into the nineties, and if there had been another utterly brilliant title sequence...

I just about remember the old theme and of course I also remember the Sunday morning repeats. However, I have always loved the 90’s theme. It suited the gritty nature of 90’s Grange Hill.

Phil Redmond is very good at completely absolving himself of all responsibility for his programmes when they get axed, he did that with Brookie, blaming everyone and everything for the falling ratings apart from the programme itself. And when he took over Grange Hill, he clearly said it was going to be aimed at 8 to 11 year olds, and that it was going to feature "a bit more fun and a bit more comedy" - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/1842047.stm So he knew exactly what the intention was when he took it over, it was going to be a lighter show aimed at younger kids. Funny how he totally forgot that by the end of it.



Yes, it was promoted as the final series. It was first shown on the CBBC Channel but the entire series was shown on BBC1, albeit they took their time to complete it - it was once a week on Mondays, and with breaks for Bank Holidays it took about six months to finish.



The 1990 theme tune was an "unheard of tune" when they introduced it. It's just another theme tune.

Series 13 was when the show became a bit more ‘soap-like’ with the new theme, become more issue-led, with that horrid dramatic music playing all the time and storylines being left on cliffhangers that weren’t picked up again until a few episodes later.

When it was filmed it hadn’t been announced. It could’ve been brought back for the 30th anniversary, but I suspect that the production team had an inkling that there would be no more series.

The 31st series wasn’t shown on CBBC before being shown on BBC One, although the show was axed two months before the final series started, so the Chicken Man titles could’ve been a last minute addition.

I agree Series 13 was when Grange Hill became more 'soap-like' and although I stopped watching regularly in 1998, from what I saw of the 2002 series, it seemed even more like a soap that focussed on the teachers' lives as much as the pupils' lives. I have heard people saying over the years that the 1990s era didn't have the gritty feel of the 80s series, although there were some very dramatic storylines in the 90s, the programme didn't have the same feel as in the earlier years. It wasn't just the theme and titles, but I think the new sets from 1990 had a more modern and smarter feel with their grey colour scheme, when the 1985-89 classrooms and corridors looked more like a 1960s built school. The 1990-2002 interior seemed more 'clinical' compared to the old decor