Written by Phil Redmond. Tx 15th March 1978
Tucker’s still very much a loose cannon. His latest trick is seeing how often he can throw his woodwork chisel into a piece of wood – which is rather dangerous to say the least. The fact that the teacher remains oblivious to this no doubt would have upset those watching at home who already found him and some of the other pupils to be less than ideal role models.
His next wheeze is to persuade Benny to explore an abandoned building which he claims is an ammo dump. Rather unexpectedly, Justin asks to join them. Tucker’s reluctant (since the incident at the swimming pool) but Benny is happy for him to come along, so Tucker eventually agrees.
The abandoned building offers plenty of scope for unusual camera angles and tension is ramped up by mysterious noises (which turn out to be a cat!) But the abandoned building isn’t quite as abandoned as it seems – two workman turn up. As the three boys attempt to escape, Justin loses his footing and falls.
At first glance, it looks as if he might be dead. But it would have been a daring move (and probably a step too far) to kill off a pupil so early in the run. Although at the time the first series was made it was far from certain that a second would go into production, so you could argue that they had nothing to lose.
But after the fall-out that occurred over the swimming pool incident, they were probably wise to ensure that Justin only suffered broken bones and concussion. We’d have to wait a little longer before the series started killing off its pupils.
Mrs Jenkins and Mrs Green are called to the school and it’s refreshing that neither find fault with the school – they both put the blame onto their children (whilst also accepting that they have to shoulder responsibilty as well). After some deliberation it’s decided that only corporal punishment will fit the bill – and this is enough to finally wipe the smile off Tucker’s face (although, brave to the end, he does insist that he can take more punishment than Benny!)
Archive Television Musings 
After the first series of Grange Hill there was a letter of complaint in Radio Times from a parent who watched the episode where Tucker and his friends went exploring in an old warehouse. She thought that this was a good idea as sh thought it would be a warning about the dangers of playing in old buildings, and sure enough one of the boys was injured and ended up in hospital.
But in the last scene the headmaster seemed more concerned about punishing the other two boys than about the welfare of the injured boy, and the correspondent thought that it undermined the safety message.
Some people say Grange Hill was never the same after Tucker left. Some people say Grange Hill jumped the shark when the school merged with Brookdale. Some people say Grange Hill jumped the shark after the wedding episode when production moved to Liverpool. But there are some people say Grange Hill jumped the shark at least as far back as the warehouse episode.
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One of the rare occasions corporal punishment was used in Grange Hill, the only other time it’s used is by the psycho games teacher Mr Hicks, who only lasts one episode, and when Cathy gets caned for skipping school in series 4. Then it’s never seen or mentioned again, and presumably has been abolished at the school in the early eighties, and when it was in use, was only as a last resort. Probably true to life, as schools were phasing out corporal punishment at the time and the practice was being made illegal.
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The above comment is wrong. Mr. Hicks didn’t apply corporal punishment, he was and to put in Grange Hill speak ‘a head case’.
Cathy Hargreaves received it for taking an afternoon off though!.
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I enjoyed this episode. Tucker is still very much the reckless naughty schoolboy at this stage, as is proven in the woodwork class, and yet he is vaguely developing a personality of sorts which makes him oddly interesting to watch. Todd Carty plays him spot on, and Benny Sue Pat is good as his partner-in-mischief, with the pair steadily becoming a highlight of these early visits to Grange Hill. It seems off that Justin asks Tucker and Benny if he can go with them to the abandoned building, considering he’s always been shown as both timid and quite disapproving of ‘bad behaviour’ (and of course was on the receiving end of Tucker and co.’s boisterous trouble making just two episodes prior). Maybe in part he sees going with them as an opportunity to try and join in and even prove himself, as he is a pupil that always seems to be having trouble joining in (then again, maybe the sheer thought of adventure appeal to his rather staid lifestyle).
The derelict building is well shot, intriguing and creepy at the same time (no doubt it was given some sort of health and safety once over before they both let the young actors in, and indeed sent the crew in to film in there). The shenanigans inside, first with the cat, and then messing around on the old trolley, are maybe rather basic in terms of plot, but they are interestingly filmed enough, and the three young actors are engaging enough, that it holds up far better than it might have.
And then we get the – particularly for it’s time – shocking moment when, running from the workmen, Justin slips from the top of the wall, complete with that scream, “Tucker!”. He turns out not to be dead, but even so, the crumpled way he lays on the ground was no doubt enough to give the odd young viewer a restless nights sleep, and to set a few pens a-writing to the BBC in protest.
We get to see Grange Hill’s first ever seen headmaster, Mr. Starling (Denys Hawthorne), in his only ever appearance. On hindsight it’s maybe a bit odd that they never introduced a headteacher figure in the very first episode, but these early instalments were focused far more soley around the pupils, with many a one or two time teacher appearance and only Mr. Mitchell proving to be the most regular teaching face, appearing in every episode of Series One.
The scenes where Mrs. Jenkins and Mrs. Green are called in to see the headmaster are well done, done of the ridiculous “nobody tells my son off” behaviour of so many parents nowadays(!); whilst it seems we may have seen the last of Justin with talk of his father moving him to a different school – it comes as a bit of an unexpected turn-up when we see him again in Series Two. Meanwhile, outside the headmasters office, Carty and Sue Patt are again on top form, discussing the cane (which really dates it) and Tucker’s typical false bravado again coming to the fore.
The series slowly growing and finding it’s feet can really be felt from about this episode until the end of the first series, and even all these years later are a very engaging watch. I really like this episode.
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