School of hard shocks
1 Hitting screens for the first time on February 8, 1978 on BBC One, Grange Hill would run for 30 years until 2008. Phil Redmond wanted to show the reality of school life.
2 Set in a comprehensive, Grange Hill was filmed in real schools in north London, but has nothing to do with the Grange Hill stop on the London Underground.
3 The original tune, famously played over the “flying sausage” comic strip titles, was called Chicken Man and composed in just an hour.
4 By the 1980s its popularity had spawned novels, a computer game and a spin-off series named Tucker’s Luck, where Todd Carty’s character Tucker Jenkins looked for work after leaving school. Todd went on to play EastEnders’ Mark Fowler.
5 Many of the characters, such as “Gripper” Stebson, Roland Browning, “Pogo” Patterson and ‘‘Gonch” Gardner, became household names. “Ziggy” Greaves’s nickname came from the alter ego of singer David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust.
6 It became known for gritty storylines covering everything from teenage pregnancy to alcoholism, homosexuality and rape.
7 One of the most famous plots was Zammo McGuire’s heroin addiction. It led to the cast releasing the Just Say No record which reached No5 in the charts in 1986.
8 Lee MacDonald, who played Zammo, didn’t sing on the record. But he was among members of the cast invited to the White House by US President’s wife Nancy Reagan.
9 Paula Ann Bland, who played Claire Scott, sparked controversy when she posed for a topless photoshoot after leaving the show.
10 Actress Laura Sadler, whose character Judi Jeffreys had been killed after falling out of a window, died in real life when she accidentally fell from a balcony in 2003.
11 Bridget McCluskey was the longest-serving head teacher while Mr Bronson, played by Michael Sheard, also played Hitler in the Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade movie.
12 The show gave a start to Susan Tully (Suzanne Ross) who played Michelle in EastEnders.