Phil Redmond says BBC should axe Grange Hill!

Hardly surprising. He may want to pitch new ideas to the BBC. Making a negative comment now would be a big mistake.

Well it didn't hold him back when Brookside was axed.





As discussed several times, this 6-12 policy now implemented at CBBC is very misguided.

The idea was supposed to serve the teen audience better with Switch, which is only just over an hour a week and includes a run of the mill music programme and a US import no other channels wanted.

They were better served just a few years ago when most things on CBBC at 5pm was there for the older secondary school kids, and watchable by those a bit older too - plus of course they had the big Saturday morning shows which although having large family appeal were probably targetted more at teens than the 6-12 year olds - so that in total would be a good 5 hours a week.

Perhaps he learned his lesson.

A big mistake from the BBC. Grange Hill is like Doctor Who in that the whole premise of the programme means the cast are often changing. How can a school not reflect lives of children today?

I know. It's pathetic excuse. Chances are Redmond walked into BBC execs office and got a bit angry at the way they were treating the programme but we don't know.

What annoys me is how this gets on the news and Byker Grove doesn't.
What,so just because it's been on for longer it's more important?

Basically yes.
Byker Grove really wasn't an institution as such. The only thing that could really be said for it is that it created Ant and Dec.
Other than that it was dead-weight but only people under about 25 now would of watched it.

Grange Hill can be looked at fondly as people who are around 35-40, the demographic news audience, can remember it.

Apparently so. What makes me laugh is when long running shows that few people watch now are axed and everyone is up in arms...despite the fact that they didn't watch it. OK, this is slightly different because it's a kids show that (most) people eventually grow out of (was it actually still popular amongst kids though?). But take 'Top Of The Pops' for example. No one was watching it by 2006, it was crap and irrelevant. The BBC rightly axe it and suddenly the entire nation brands the decision a disgrace. If just half as many people who complained had actually watched it it wouldn't have axed it in the first place.

It be interesting to see what Kids of today actually think of the news. I doubt they give a f*ck TBH. And really at the end of the day isn't it what they think that really matters?

If anything the first nail in GH's coffin was outsourcing it to Phil Redmond's MerseyTV.

Second nail was moving the setting from North London to Liverpool (why move it everyone knew it was London whereas moving it to Liverpool made it a whole new show - if anything this is when it should have beex axed. Accents changed, the school changed (instead of evolving like it did at the old studios - now home of Holby!) and most importantly the cast changed all in one go. And yet we talk about the shift in direction for the final series - this happened in 2002.

Third nail was the hiatus in the series

Fourth nail was making it exclusive to CBBC only and not one repeat on either BBC1 or BBC2

Final nail was this coming final series - totallt unbelievable and nowhere near as realistic of today schooling world that the BBC bosses like to believe.

Secondary Schools are primarily still the same now as they were 30 years ago - yes more associations with catchment schools and there is more technology involved in school nowadays but the children are the same as they ever were and the issues are still the same. Just look at Waterloo Road - this is how Grange Hill used to be like (i.e. the children more than the adults!!!!) and yet Waterloo Road is a success!!!!

Children haven't changed and if there is a good programme to watch THEY WILL watch it. But there is just a load of rubbish nowadays, not just for the younger children but also the older children - exceptions being Hollyoaks, Neighbours, and others (mainly on T4!!). the only real challenging and original programmes that do attract the children/teen audience are actual spin-offs from more adult shows - MI High (Spooks) and Sarah Jane (Dr Who)!!!!

Production values have nosedived with the genre and more importantly the people employed for children's programmes from runners to head of deaprtments don't actually seem to know what children want and they seem to condesend children with piles and piles of absolute rubbish - is it any wonder children are "switching off and doing something less boring instead" (now where have I heard that phrase before?????)

The BBC should really be ashamed of themselves for they way they have treated the programme - and children as a whole.

Also very predictable was that all news programmes mainly mentioned the early days of Grange Hill, the cartoon strip opening titles etc

They even did this on Radio 1 Newsbeat. Surely most of Radio 1's listeners will remember the programme after they changed the opening titles

Well he was saying it should be axed a few weeks ago.

I know. Its easier to moan about how your property is being handled when you still get cheques in the post.

Redmond's 30 year long revenue stream has just stopped. I imagine a smart business man would now have his mind on the next project.

I think he is probably very smart.