Grange Hill in the 1990s

Something I always noticed with Grange Hill as well, not just in the 90s, but in the earlier years is how there were hardly any Asian characters and I always thought this seemed unrealistic for a North London school. I also noticed how Asian pupils were often portrayed as victims of racism as well. I know Gripper Stebson bullied black pupils as well as Asians, but I remember a characted called Aichaa who was in the sixth form in 1990, she went out with Robbie Wright and football thugs attacked them and called her a racist name.

Aichaa was only in Series 13 and after her brother Akik left the following year there were no Asian characters till about 1999 when one Asian girl joined, I thnk her name was Aneeka. Although I wasn't a regular viewer by then, I remember reading there was a racism storyline around 2000 and Aneeka was bullied by a boy called Spencer. Although he also picked on a black pupil, once again an Asian Grange Hill pupil was shown as a victim of racism and I believed having a racism storyline in Grange Hill in 2000 was very outdated and I remember thinking why they couldn't portray Asian pupils in a more positive way by then?

Grange Hill always had a lot of black pupils, so surely a higher number of Asian pupils would have been more realistic?

I read an interview with Sheila Chandra, who played Sudhamani Patel from 1979-1981. She said that there were very few Asian kids in stage school in the 70s and 80s, and she was one of only two girls auditioning for the role. She even admitted she was a terrible actress.

Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if Akik was originally meant to stay longer than he did. After all, some of his year stayed until 1996.

It doesn't surprise me that there were very few Asian kids at stage schools back in the 70s and 80s. There didn't seem to be many younger Asian actors on mainstream TV from what I recall. I think you are right about Akik originally being meant to stay longer, it often makes me wonder why a lot of Grange Hill pupil actors left so soon.

It’s usually exams, there’s always a few in each year who drop out because their parents want them focusing on schoolwork.