A film adaption of Grange Hill has been confirmed, and a Welsh actress who starred in the classic children's drama has been signed up to direct it. Sara Sugarman played original cast member Jesssica Samuels, the rebellious head of the student action group who was expelled from the fictional high school.
The show's creator, Phil Redmond, has said the plot will be partly based on her character and features a protest against plans to close the school.
Grange Hill ran for 30 years between 1978 and 2008, but had its heyday in the 1980s when it broke new ground with storylines that covered racism, drug addiction and mental health. See where cast members are now here.
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Speaking about the new adaptation, Phil told broadcast magazine Deadline.: “Sara reached out, and that lit a lightbulb in my head. 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 Sara was a “great fit” and her character’s growth would be one of the film’s main themes, because Jessica Samuels "was the first one who got me into trouble". You can get read more showbiz news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
Phil told BBC Breakfast: "She led the student action group and the riot in the dining hall and and I got my knuckles wrapped over those scenes with the usual controversy things, but I thought what would be really interesting was what happened to Jessica after after she was expelled."
He explained how he came up with the idea that she would be a campaigning social lawyer helping protesters and when she hears about the school being under threat, she gets involved.
More former cast members are set to be involved as they are now the parents and grandparents of children at the school.
Sara told BBC Breakfast: "I am so chuffed to be involved. I went to a comprehensive school in north Wales and then came to London as a child to act and in those days it was like going to the moon to act. I went to stage school and I remember when the BBC came I had only been there two weeks but I wanted the part so badly.
"As a kid I didn't really know what I was saying as Jessica Samuels, but I was so delighted to have got the part. As an adult, I do realise what was being said and what was being said then is just as important as what is being said today, justice and social conscience and sense of fair play.
"I am overwhelmed by how it infiltrated so many people's thoughts over the generations. The nostalgia is there but this is for a new generation as well."
Find images from Wales's past here:
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