Grange Hill to get big screen treatment as original cast set to return for film reboot
28 April 2023, 12:49
Grange Hill is set to be rebooted as a film, more than 40 years since it first aired, featuring the original cast members.
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The beloved children's drama, set in a comprehensive school in the fiction London borough of Northam, originally ran from 1978 to 2008.
The show was groundbreaking in its content, with various storylines covering racism, drug addiction and mental health issues over the years.
Creator Phil Redmond said that original cast member Sara Sugarman had asked and signed on to direct.
"Sara reached out, and that lit a lightbulb in my head,” Mr Redmond told Deadline.
"I thought: ‘Why don’t I look beyond the main characters, which is obvious, and we’ll have them all there for nostalgia, but where did Jessica go?’”
It's still unclear if Ms Sugarman will also reprise her role in the new film, but Mr Redmond confirmed that several of the previous characters will feature.
Read more: Grange Hill actor Nicholas Donnelly dies aged 83
The show helped launch careers for the likes of Todd Carty, who played Peter “Tucker” Jenkins, Susan Tully, who was Suzanne Ross, and Lee MacDonald, who played Zammo.
"We don’t want it to be like a lot of these things where they just take the characters, use the brand and throw something together," he said.
"I wanted to think about how best we could revisit the show. In many ways, the only place I feel comfortable doing it now is the cinema.
Mr Redmond, 73, who is also known for his work on Brookside and Hollyoaks, said he thought he could still depict the lives of teenagers in the 2020s.
He said: "Back in the 90s, I was at the forefront of all this, and it’s one of the reasons I don’t do social media myself because I saw the future and thought, ‘I don’t want any part of that.
"I know how it works, but they’re only tools. The real conversations happen in real life. The sociology of life hasn’t changed."
Two former stars of the series, which aired on the BBC, died last year.
Nicholas Donnelly, who played teacher Mr MacKenzie in the series for around eight years, died in his sleep in January 2022 aged 83.
His family said he was a "kind and lovely" man who had been "a privilege to know".
Meanwhile Gwyneth Powell, who starred in Grange Hill for a decade from 1981 as stern-but-fair headmistress Mrs McClusky, died aged 76 in September.
