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Ive been under the weather this week so have spent a lot of time surfing the web. Today ive got into a Grange Hill loop of videos on the tube, jesus it seems pretty full on considering its over 40 years old.
I watched it all when I was a lad but I was genuinely quite shocked to see it again, overt racism, beatings, extortion, abusive teachers not to mention a young lass getting the cane
Thinking about it, it was actually pretty similar to what I experienced at school, which is probably why I wasn't that shocked at the time. With the benefit of 40 odd years passing, blimey.
But , as you say, it was 40 years ago. Things change and 40 years from now people will question life in 2024.
If you get asked if you want to watch any more Just Say No.
Baxter’s greatest moment.
School was like that in the early ‘80s. Just the time we were bought up in.
The amount of stuff we got up to would be instant exclusion now.
If you get asked if you want to watch any more Just Say No.
nice
The amount of stuff we got up to would be instant exclusion now.
We'd be Tik Tok stars though
Legends!!! 🙂
Late 70s early 80's was short, nasty and brutish. Still, so glad we had no mobile phones or social media.
Something that I thought particularly amusing was the hard boys hanging out in the bogs, they were utterly vile at our school. Unheated, practically outdoors and the last place you'd choose to loiter.
The bogs where were they shoved kids heads down the toilet though. And smoked in there too of course.
Friend of mine pierced his ear in the bogs - needle ‘sterilised’ with a fag lighter - needless to say it got infected!
I hated it and loved that period too. So much freedom.
I remember watching the first episode. It was on telly just as I started Secondary School.
i think it was a pretty accurate depiction of my school days. It was rough and tough, there was bullying, racism, homophobia etc…
But I recall it with fondness and wouldn’t change it even if I could so..,,
The tragic thing about it all was that even after seeing what happened to Zammo, neither me or any of my mates ever said no
Must have worked on me - I’ve never even smoked a spliff!! 🙂
I did grow up in the sticks though, so rebellion for us was being served in the village pub at 16!
The tragic thing about it all was that even after seeing what happened to Zammo, neither me or any of my mates ever said no
Despite enjoying most pleasures, Zammo's advice kept me away from smack. Thanks Zammo 🙂
To be fair, that was always the line in the sand for us too
Cheers Zammo! 😀
Some friends of mine shared a house with this guy in Liverpool at uni.
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So I went for a beer with him one time in the nineties. Really nice fella.
Can't recall his character name now.
Was that Hollo?
That's it
Thumbs up emoji
Seemed fairly accurate to me too at the time. Not seen it since. I would, however, like to take this opportunity to thank the lady that came to our school to talk about the dangers of drugs. She made LSD sound so amazing that my friends and I immediately set about getting our hands on some. A fantastic couple of summers because of her. Thanks drugs are bad lady ?
The Al Gore Rhythms just spat this at me.
It pretty much reflected what school was like for me in those times although a couple of teachers were worse, one of the PE/Maths teachers (never out of his blue Adidas tracksuit) was a complete nutter.
The tragic thing about it all was that even after seeing what happened to Zammo, neither me or any of my mates ever said no
Funny, cause it's true!!
Gonch was at the same Uni as me, always seemed like a bit of a **** though.
Late 70s early 80’s was short, nasty and brutish.
And thats just the cast of Grange Hill
The amount of stuff we got up to would be instant exclusion now.
My school banned any haircut shorter than a Number 3 (early 80s).
Gibbo would go into an absolute rage and suspend you for weeks - FFS.
Made me smile last year when Thump - headboy at the local high school - was front of the school website with a Number 1 all over.
So, no. The schools today are welcoming with a caring atmosphere: love it.
And I hope Gibbo rots in hell.
one of the PE/Maths teachers (never out of his blue Adidas tracksuit) was a complete nutter.
Was Mr Davies at my school - think every secondary had a mentally unstable PE teacher.
You can't help watching the trouble makers like gripper Stebson without thinking that their home life must be pretty ****ed up. I don't think that is something I was thinking about back then
True story - my elder sisters weren't allowed to watch Grange Hill as it was, according to my Hyacinth-esque mother, 'too common'. Or Tiswas 🙂
No Tiswas!! That’s child abuse :))
think every secondary had a mentally unstable PE teacher.
Yep, same here. Ex Para, given his age, probably had PTSD, he was an evil bastard.
think every secondary had a mentally unstable PE teacher.
Yip. Ours was a Welsh psychopath who had us out playing rugby in all weathers, including snow, sleet, sub-zero temperatures or gale force winds and thus ensured my lifelong hatred of the game
Our resident PR nutter was an ex England B team rugby player. Promising career cut short by injury. He still had contact in the England rugby hierarchy so lived vicariously through any promising player to use his contacts & get them scouted.
One of the lads in the 1st XV with me was a natural all round sportsman. Football was his first love (had several trials and was due to sign terms for Spurs when he was 16).
Only started playing rugby at 13 when he came to our school & was better than most who played for years. Of course PE teacher wanted to push him to rugby (drop football in case of injury). As this was early 80s so rugby was still “amateur “ who would favour that over football if you had a choice.
When the lad said he was leaving school at 16, PE nutter really lost it
PE / Geography Teacher - Mr Lander, ex-rugby player. Drove a 911 and thought he was the bees-knees. Savage bully.
^ Yeah we had a similar maths teacher. I still occasionally consider whether I should raise what he did to me some 43 years ago (very low level, but looking back, it was definitely sexual abuse).
Yep, we also had a psychopathic Welsh PE teacher who hated me, as I was stocky and quick but only played football. The "Irish don't play rugby" I told him with a knowledgeable smirk.
PE head teacher at my school in the mid/late 80's was caught in his office shagging a pupil, not sacked. another teacher nicknamed doc savage punched me in the stomach (He mistook me for someone else) so hard I threw up and had to go home but I had the last laugh as my dad (skipper on the fishing boats) got hold of him and bounced him around the grass in front of the school. Craft & Design teacher held my mates face close to the belt sander for messing around in class. A few years after I left, the English teacher started a relationship with one of my mates younger brothers in her class, she kept her job.
School in the 80's could be quite rough, yet fun in "what the **** is going to happen today?" kinda way
Went to 4 high schools/academy's, best for teaching/sports was Oban high, worst was kirkcudbright academy as unless you were the son of a farmer/business owner etc then they didn't want to know,
We had a classic PE teacher: former professional footballer until his career was finished by a car crash. Permanent limp with pain-management by alcohol.
Most kids hated him but others say he took an interest in them, changed their life around and made them realise they could do more.
Was also legendary for stopping at a pub with the U15 cricket team and buying everyone a pint.
We had two mental PE teachers. One we called He-man because of his blonde mullet clearly had a thing for teenaged girls and was just a bit of a dick all round. The other, I forget his name, was an out and proud massive racist. We used to have a game called murderball. He once insisted on a game of blacks versus whites. There were three non-white kids in the class. Made us play rounders without bats, using our hands/forearms instead. Also made to play sports outside regardless of the weather. Only ever allowed shorts and T-shirts whilst the teacher was in a parka.
we also had an unhinged woodwork teacher. Horrible bully who would hit kids and get away with it. He was always really nice to me, which was weird. Then I found out my step father beat the absolute shit out of him when he was a pupil. Ribs, jaw and arm all fractured.
Each class in my school has an unofficial league table of who'd been caned the most. One guy in mine was on 200+ strokes. I managed to escape with 3 or 4.
Zammos advice not heeded, lost one classmate to an OD and another was shot dead in Hackney while minding his own business a while ago
Mr Kennedy, ex-Leeds Utd player in the 70s, and then Wycombe Wanderers, a nasty man who passed away in 2018.
A bully with judicious use of corporal punishment, and a seeming deep-down dislike for 10-11 year-old children. Made life hell for most of the lads and was worshipped by the girls. His legacy still haunts me now 44 years later.
Some people should never have been teachers.
On the flip side to my previously mentioned PE teacher, we did have an excellent maths teacher who was really there to teach and if you wanted to learn he was really inspiring. Same with a stand-in woodwork teacher we had, he ran a carpentry business locally and stepped in when the regular teacher was off for a few months. Absolutely brilliant, real work skills that he just wanted us to learn.
We had our fair share of terrible teachers ( including a PE teacher who once tried to boot me across the changing room for talking at the same time as him. A bad move because I was 4 inches taller and generally a lot bigger all round than him. We had a little "talk" about it a couple of days later in town.) But the worst was an R.E teacher that had started at the school years before when my father was a pupil. He was a nasty, vicious piece of work and the sole reason that my dad never came to any parent's evenings because my dad said that he wasn't sure that he would be able to control himself remembering all the things that he'd seen this man do (the teacher was a Methodist preacher that was very spare the rod and spoil the child to the extent of making a selection of his own tools for beating boys with).
I recall many similar anecdotes (I was 11 in 1978).
Mr Lucas (PE Teacher) lined up the whole class one day to give us all a whack with his Trainer shoe that he kept for just such things. He decided that we made too much noise while getting changed after a cross-country run!
A Maths teacher (can't recall his name) who liked to throw the Wooden Board Rubber at any kid that talked during his class. In his defence he aimed for the desk in front of the pupil rather than the pupil themselves! Usually this resulted in a cloud of chalk dust and the kid next to the target pupil getting whacked as the Board Rubber would bounce off the desk!
Kids would regularky get sent to 'see the headmaster' for a caning. One or two of the senior teachers were also 'authorised' to use the cane.
About 15 years after I left school the French Teacher, the one that we saw every week, was convicted of child sexual offences - loads of pictures on his computer apparently.
The Government banned corporal punishment just after I left school.
I got an F for PE thanks to a shit PE teacher.
I could have written this thread about 2 months ago. I literally binge watched Grange hill for about 2 months solid. There are about 25 seasons!!
From Tucker, Gripper, Banksie, Roland, Hollo, Gonch, Zammo etc etc. I did the lot. I could not believe how well (for the time) they covered all the issues that were about at the time without having to pussy foot around the subject.
Have a youtube search of Grange Hill racism and there is an astonishing clip of Benny complaining to a teacher and one of the more caring and understanding older girls. She listens, gives advice and shows real empathy. Then she ruins it all right at the end (in front of the teacher) by saying "you cant help being a nigg nogg" (Apologies if this offends, its what she says). Simply stunning.