EXCLUSIVE: Phil Redmond on how the BBC killed off Grange Hill

Feb 8 2008 by Phil Redmond, Liverpool Daily Post

Phil Redmond,founder of Mersey Television _320

MERCURY. That silvery beady semi-liquid, impossible to pick up or pin down, that those of a certain age will remember science teachers letting them play with.

Yet we now know that mercury is highly toxic, as witnessed by a Wirral arts gallery earlier this week. While setting up an exhibition, half a pint (it was an antique) of mercury was spilled from the pendulum of a long case clock requiring three teams of fire-fighters to spend four hours in full chemical suits cleaning up what was deemed a major chemical incident. And half the nation’s teeth are filled with it! How times change.

Of course, any talk of changing times and mercury will always make me think of my friends at the BBC who finally conceded this week that, after 30 years, Grange Hill no longer has a place in their schedules. Ironic that today is actually the 30th anniversary of the first episode, but not a bad innings. Still, as any school report will say, must try harder next time to live up to potential.

The announcement, of course, comes as no shock following BBC Children’s decision early last year to abandon viewers over 12 and concentrate its focus on nine-year olds. Obviously, that wasn’t good news for a programme that had then spent 29 years focusing on secondary education. On the other hand the silver, or should that be quicksilver, lining may be that the subsequent publicity may give the DVDs for the Tucker Jenkins years a bit of a boost in the shops!

Yet, one decision about one programme is not the point as, to quote George Harrison, All Things Must Pass. The point is in the mercurial way in which the BBC makes or changes its editorial priorities based on its own survivalist needs, rather than the licence payer’s desires. To maintain its size and cost base, it decides to make fewer programmes and plans to withdraw support for things like local radio and public access to the internet. Is that what the public really want?

While society at large is looking for cultural role models for our children, underpinning growing concern about the lack of home- grown children’s programming, shouldn’t the BBC, our primary public service broadcaster, be doing more, not less, to plug this cultural gap? Is setting the age of 12 as the end of childhood a sociological reality or simply a response to falling ratings following the usual failure to keep engaged with and serve a changing audience adequately?

Of course, trying to get them to engage in these debates, like why they were focusing on the 2012 Olympics but overlooking 2008, is like trying to get a local council to explain its finances. A bit like trying to pin down mercury.