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| In November 2007 GH Online teamed up with BBC Worldwide to offer
five lucky winners the new Grange Hill DVDs as prizes in a competition.
One of the lucky winners, Chris Reilly, has kindly written a review
of the DVDs for us. Many thanks Chris: Thanks to winning the Grange Hill Online competition I am now the proud owner of two DVD boxsets covering series 1-4 of Grange Hill. The 61 episodes themselves, originally shown between 1978 and 1981, need little explanation to Grange Hill fans of a certain age however for the benefit of younger viewers of the most recent Grange Hill series of 2007 who have never seen these original episodes I will try to expand further. Series 1 and 2 are based on the exploits of new First Year pupils arriving at Grange Hill School. The main characters include the "cheeky rascal" Peter "Tucker" Jenkins (the uncle of Patrick "Togger" Johnson from the current series) and his gang of mates along with the streetwise Trisha Yates and the "posh" duo of Justin Bennett and Judy Preston. Through their eyes we see the trials and tribulations of beginning a new life as the youngest kids at high school. Issues such as bullying, poverty, dyslexia, shoplifting and truanting are covered, but never in a way that feels contrived or condescending. Although the clothes, hairstyles and classrooms have a dated look to them the characters and the stories are perfectly believable and stand up just as well in 2007. Series 3 and 4 continue in a similar vein but the cast expands further. In addition to Tucker & Co, who are now in Third Year, there is also the memorable ginger-haired wheeler-dealer Pogo Patterson and his friend Duane Orpington, who both arrive as First Years. In Series 4 they are joined by the evil bully Norman "Gripper" Stebson as well as best friends Clare Scott and Suzanne Ross. New ground is covered such as smoking and romance and Grange Hill also has its first pupil fatality. To summarize on the actual episodes themselves if you enjoy Grange Hill in 2007 you will certainly enjoy Series 1-4, if you look beyond the rather dodgy fashions and hairstyles! The DVD boxsets themselves come in plastic cases enclosed in a cardboard dustcover. The DVD discs are rather crammed in to the boxes in an "overlapping" arrangement that takes some getting used to, but then that’s to be expected due to the number of discs contained within each boxset (five on Series 1-2, and six on Series 3-4). Each disc contains a photo of one of the stars of that series (ie there is a Series 1 disc with Tucker and a Series 4 disc with Gripper) - a nice touch. Also included is a mini four page episode guide, giving a brief overview of what happens in each episode - handy if there's a particular moment you want to see straight away. BE WARNED - the episode guides do contain some SPOILERS so do not read these if you are a first time viewer.  Upon
playing the disc you will find yourself at the main menu which is
a simple blackboard scene and you choose to either "Play All" or "Play
Episode" - it has to be said that there are a distict lack of extras
on the discs - all we get are Quizzes. Possibly a cast commentary
or behind the scenes documentary would have been too much to ask for
but the lack of subtitles is surprising, as that is usually included
as standard these days, particularly on BBC DVDs. The picture and
sound during the episodes are both perfectly acceptable, if not always
of pristine quality. Some of the (mostly outdoor) scenes shot on film
have the odd bit of fuzz/dots that have not been cleaned up or remastered.
DVD buffs may be annoyed by this but I am happy to accept these imperfections
as a relic of their time, they have not impinged on my enjoyment of
the episodes in any way. I suppose cleaning these up would have been
technically feasible but the cost may have rendered this prohibitive. Somewhat
more surprisingly as far as I can see ALL of the interior scenes shot
on videotape appear to have been "treated" to make them look "filmic"
(picture the remastered episodes of Red Dwarf and you won't be far
away) like the outdoor scenes. It's something which might initially
be disconcerting to long term fans of Grange Hill's early series but
after a while you will forget about it. Another change from the episodes
"as originally screened" are that a (very) few scenes have been sadly
removed due to so-called "musical rights issues", again only obsessive
fans of the original series will miss these and new viewers won't
find their enjoyment of the episodes lessened by these omissions.
To summarize I feel that the episodes contained in these two DVD boxsets
are excellent, even if the extras are a little disappointing.Nostalgic fans of Grange Hill will enjoy reliving the stories they watched so many years ago and I would also recommend the DVDs to fans of the current Grange Hill series, if you like that I would expect you to will love this!" |