When Grange Hill first aired in 1978, it was groundbreaking in the way it covered the reality of teenagers’ lives, from heroin addiction to HIV/Aids and knife crime. Now, 15 years after it was axed, the BBC is returning to school dramas to attract teenage audiences, with a new series described as “Grange Hill meets The Breakfast Club”.
Phoenix Rise charts six pupils previously excluded from school who start back in mainstream education through a pupil referral unit. Its writers hope to portray young lives with the same accuracy that Grange Hill did over the course of its 31 series.
