Nearly half a century after it first aired on BBC One, a film adaptation of the classic children’s drama series Grange Hill has been confirmed – with the original cast making a surprise return.
The series, which ran from 1978 until 2008, portrayed life in a typical British comprehensive school in the fictional London borough of Northam, and broke new ground over the years with storylines that covered racism, drug addiction and mental health.
According to the show’s creator, Phil Redmond, original cast member Sara Sugarman has signed on to direct a plot which is partly based on her character, Jessica Samuels. In the TV show, Samuels was the rebellious head of the Grange Hill student action group.
“Sara reached out, and that lit a lightbulb in my head,” Redmond told Deadline. “I thought: ‘Why don’t I look beyond the main characters, which is obvious, and we’ll have them all there for nostalgia, but where did Jessica go?’”
He said Sugarman was a “great fit” and her character’s growth would be one of the film’s main themes.
While Sugarman did not confirm whether she would reprise her role, she did tease that the film will “definitely” feature appearances from multiple original cast members. The TV show launched the careers of actors including Todd Carty, who played Peter “Tucker” Jenkins, Susan Tully, who starred as Suzanne Ross, and Lee MacDonald, who played Zammo.
“It wouldn’t be Grange Hill without the Grange Hillers, and there will be some surprises,” Sugarman said.
The film will be written by Redmond, who originally planned the film for launch this year and said scripts are “pretty close”. He said it would not shy away from the social issues faced by schoolchildren today, including the effects of social media. The film would also speak to adults about universal themes such as identity and community, Deadline reported.
“We don’t want it to be like a lot of these things where they just take the characters, use the brand and throw something together,” he said. “I wanted to think about how best we could revisit the show. In many ways, the only place I feel comfortable doing it now is the cinema.”
The 73-year-old, also known for Brookside and Hollyoaks, said he believed he was still able to accurately depict the lives of modern teenagers.
“Back in the 90s, I was at the forefront of all this, and it’s one of the reasons I don’t do social media myself because I saw the future and thought, ‘I don’t want any part of that. I know how it works, but they’re only tools. The real conversations happen in real life. The sociology of life hasn’t changed.”
