Series 13

[aquablue]

I have recently watched series 13-15 for the third time and I would like to share my views on these three series starting with series 13.

For me these three series form the lowest point in Grange Hill, prior to the move to Liverpool, but nevertheless I enjoyed them.

Series 13:  This series was always going to be difficult to enjoy.  No more Helen, Ziggy, Gonch and Vince.  When I first saw this series many years ago I remember feeling like an era had ended.  Grange Hill would never be the same again.  I actually quite enjoy this series now.  Robbie is still a good character and the 3rd years are slowly maturing as a group.  The new 1st years are somewhat weak and I find Jacko and Becky's year to be one of the poorest across the whole programme. Aichaa is a promising new character (unlike her little brother) and Mike Bentley makes a fair stab as the new heart throb.  Georgina is excellent as the moody demanding girlfriend, demonstrating perfectly how difficult relationships are at that age.

The football hooligan story seems a few years too late, at a time when the game was trying to sort it out and hooliganism was becoming less of an issue (it was probably done in the wake of Hillsborough but that disaster was not related to hooliganism).  I also find the pub fight story to be very weak and why did they run straight into the middle of the fight when in real life you would have stood well back until it was over.  In this series Mauler had gone from a so called bully character with a touch of side humour to a complete clown, which seemed uneccessary.  Trevor Cleaver always seemed to maintain a good balance between humour and a believable character while Mauler just became a joke.  The Animal Rights issues were a bit annoying and I found it very easy to lose sympathy with Ronnie when she became obsessive about it although I did enjoy the break in into testing facility.

I found the sudden disappearance of Clarke Trent odd, a theme that is all too common in Grange Hill, when a character is no longer there with little to no explanation.

Another oddity I find about Grange Hill at this time is that the background music and some of the fashions seem out of date.  As though it is taking two or three years for fashions to catch up.  I remember thinking this back in 1990 and wondering why the kids at Grange Hill were so out of touch...maybe they were all Rick Astley fans. 

All in all not a bad series but missing the punch of its predecessors.

[ryan86]

I've never liked animal testing, environmental issues etc storylines about any programmes I've watched because they are always predictable, samey and preachey. That doesn't necessarily mean that the acting or whatever might not be good, but has there ever been an animal testing storyline where some random character suddenly becomes interested, some other random cast members happens to get caught in the firing product trying to buy or use said product, the animal protestors usually get in trouble with the law and then the storyline disappears.

It does feel so different to Series 12 though. Series 12, despite having the younger group does essentially feel like a one year Series since the Year 10's (?) are so strong.

[Imelda fan]

I agree that series 13 is not one of the better series, though coming after an era that had been so strong may have made it seem worse than it was.

There's still a lot to enjoy, though.  I quite like the animal rights plot, especially the scene where Ronnie bursts into the class at the other school and calls everyone murderers!

[Gonchandhollow]

I'm in the middle of watching series 13 right now. I can relate to a lot of what you posters have just said. There are things I like about it and things I don't like so much. I like the dog though! He looks just like our dog.

[eric]

as i said on the "what is the 90's era like?"thread the first epidsode  of  series 13 introduced 19 new characters which was a bit much to take in ,see this thread for a list of who they were.

[GHGold]

However, right from the off Mrs Monroe is absolutely brilliant!

[Gonchandhollow]

I watched series 13 a wee while ago and am now 2/3rds through series 14. With Series 13 I though 'oh no' is rot starting to set in? However, it was a nice suprise to watch series 14 and see some of the faults in series 13 (well, what are faults in my view) gone from series 14 (at least as far as I'm up to).

For me the main faults in Series 13 were as follows, in order of badness (i.e. no. 1 = most bad)

1. The heavy use of background music. (I figured Mr Bronson in his retirment had taken up basic keyboard and synthesiser skills and was piping his efforts through the school sound system. Shut up Mr Bronson!)

2. The melodramatic cliff-hangers. Too much - to the point of being comical.

3. Maybe a little too much melodrama. It's hard to seperate this from the background music though to think clearly about this.

4. A tad too much experimenting going on with visual effects and creative camera angles. Less is more often. It drew attention to itself too much.

4. Too many new characters? Someone mentioned this earlier. I'm not sure exactly what it is but some didn't seemed well enough introduced or defined or something.

5. Robbie and the Asian girl (sorry can't remember her name). This was all good, but there seemed to me a bit of inconsistency at the end when she blamed Robbie for leading her into danger and but at the time she wanted to be right in there at the football and it was Robbie who was trying hard to keep her out of danger. While such inconsistencies are true to real life, I felt the show needed to be clearer hear for it to make more sense.

6. I thought initially there were too many cartoon-like adult characters in series 13. However, in the context of series 14 this proves not to be so. I think it is probably the cartoon-like melodrama of the background music, cliff-hangers etc. that further exaggerated the cartoon-likeness here. So this is okay.


There was lots of good in series 13 - just spoiled a bit, even quite a bit by the above, for me.  So far though I've found series 14 to be excellent, with not to much of the above.

[Gonchandhollow]

I found the sudden disappearance of Clarke Trent odd, a theme that is all too common in Grange Hill, when a character is no longer there with little to no explanation.

Yes, it would have been nice if he stayed, but as you mentioned it happens quite often. I think if they always made up a reason it would highlight the absence even more which might make it worse? I don't know. However, Matthew does refer to Clarke in Series 14 which I thought was a nice touch . Nice for continuity and making Matthews character more real.

[Alex]

I watched series 13 a wee while ago and am now 2/3rds through series 14. With Series 13 I though 'oh no' is rot starting to set in? However, it was a nice suprise to watch series 14 and see some of the faults in series 13 (well, what are faults in my view) gone from series 14 (at least as far as I'm up to).

For me the main faults in Series 13 were as follows, in order of badness (i.e. no. 1 = most bad)

Just watched S13 with some friends and we found ourselves agreeing with everything you said. The production values certainly had dipped from S12.

What I would say is: I liked the Ronnie storyline. You have to remember that this was very topical back then and it was good to see a 6th former given a realistic storyline. I thought Mike did a reasonable job in filling in for Ziggy, but obviously we missed Gonch. And again, why was there no mention of him leaving? Of the new characters, Jacko's lot looked pretty weak, but Monroe fitted in immediately.

[Gonchandhollow]

Interesting to hear another view. Almost all if not all the things I personally saw as stand-out faults in Series 13 were gone in Series 14 onwards. I sort of see Series 13 as a blip. But that said, there was a lot of good in it too. I was sorry to see Neil go just when his character was well defined. (Was that Series 14 or 15?). However, promising or even favourite star character dissapearing in their prime was never unsual for Grange Hill it seems. Probably inevitable with a show mainly made up of child actors. Also, it is not unrealistic to real life either - which is why it could be tolerated.

[GHGold]

However, series 14 does see almost a whole new character in 'Georgina's High Bump Quiff Hair'. Words can not describe it, but it steals every scene it is in.

[gonchandholloredux]

This series is about how the casting director screwed up and saddled us poor actors for the next five years. All of us could have done a better job. Beggar's belief,  but i swear it actually happened.

[Gonchandhollow]

This series is about how the casting director screwed up and saddled us poor actors for the next five years. All of us could have done a better job. Beggar's belief,  but i swear it actually happened.

You speak as if you were actually in Grange Hill? Is this correct, or have I misinterpreted your post?

[Geffers]

I think GonchAndHolloRedux means "saddled us with poor actors", rather than "saddled us poor actors"!

[Mr Bronson]

Awful series...man, why couldnt they just get Gonch and Ziggy to stay on in the 6th form, so we dont get lumbered with Calley and Ted bleeding Fisk!