I earned more from Grange Hill annuals than scripts, says writer

IT WAS the children’s’ television programme that defined a generation, with its tales of truculent comprehensive school pupils and their harried teachers. But the creator of Grange

Hill has revealed that, for all its popularity, he made more money from spin-off merchandise than the payment he received for the drama’s original scripts.

Phil Redmond described the BBC’s fees for Grange

Hill as a “disgrace”, saying he had made far more from sales of albums and books. He said: “The BBC had been reluctant to take [the first Christmas Grange Hill annual] on because they still thought of themselves as a non-commercial, public service broadcaster, and were a bit sniffy about the idea of publishing spin-off books. It cost them dear.

“We sold approximately 200,000 annuals a year, and I was receiving six-figure advances, whereas the BBC’s script fees were a disgrace. I actually made more from the annuals than I did from the series.” He added: “Similarly, the

Grange Hill original novels ended up being published by Fontana and sold in similar numbers, even outselling the likes of Frederick Forsyth.”

Mr Redmond had retained the copyright for the series and its characters. “It was me, and not the BBC, who licensed the merchandising spin-offs,” he added.

He used the money to set up his production company Mersey Television and develop the soap Brookside, which ran from 1982 until 2003, and Hollyoaks, which is still shown on Channel 4.