Written by Phil Redmond. Tx 5th January 1979
Benny’s still under suspicion and it’s enough to make him disinclined to go to school. So his parents decide to pay Mr Llewellyn a visit.
This particular story is wrapped up by the end of the episode, which does feel a little rushed (had it played out over a few more episodes then much more drama could have been mined from it). Over the years, we’ll see how Grange Hill would begin to interweave numerous plot-lines across the season. Although having said that, when Andrew Stanton is introduced in the next episode it’ll begin a storyline that isn’t resolved until the fourth series!
The true culprit is caught and punished, but it still leaves Benny feeling hurt and upset. Was he victimised because of the colour of his skin and his poor background? It’s interesting that the previous episode is quite explicit in showing how Benny came by his fifty pence (he found it lying on the ground on the way to school). Had they not done this, then there might have been some doubt as to whether he was telling the truth when he protested his innocence..
We also bid farewell to Judy as she leaves Grange Hill for Brookdale – although she’ll reappear in the final episode of series two.
Archive Television Musings 
I was amused by Judy’s leave taking with Tricia “yeah bye then” and Cathy. These days it would be all tears and hugging and emotion. How different we were then!
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I noticed that too. If it were a modern day TV production, it would have to be emotional music, a sepia-tinted slow-motion montage of moments together she got into her mum’s car… and probably a help line given out afterwards for those emotionally affected by the storyline!! Here it’s the absolute opposite, a rather stark “Yeah bye then”. 🙂
However, possibly within the context of the story, the fact that the characters still live near each other (which does slightly contradict why Judy would have to leave GH in the first place) might indicate they’ll still see each other, just not in school, which might vaguely excuse the rather ‘cold’ goodbye scene.
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Series Two Episode Two, in which the series’ first ever “more-than-one-episode” spanning storyline is concluded. I like that we see a little more Benny’s home (glimpsed briefly in Series One), a nice showcase of late 1970s decor, and how a relatively poor black family would have lived. I always liked seeing Benny’s home life, it always seemed a bit more “real” than some of the other pupils’ homes. I particularly like the scene where Benny’s Dad calmly talks to Benny about what’s troubling him; We had already seen Benny’s mother, Jumoke Debayo, in Series One, but we only meet his father in these two first episodes of Series Two and once more in Series Three. Al Matthews who plays him, had quite an interesting list of credits and real-life accomplishments; it’s a shame we never saw him more in the series.
Meanwhile, we also have another ‘Grange Hill’ first, as Judy’s mother has decided to move her to Brookdale (there is a brief, brushed-over line suggesting the family might have to move due to financial difficulties, but it is never embellished upon and doesn’t completely make sense). Poor old Judy found it hard to settle in at GH, and now that she finally has and has made friends, she is uprooted and moved again! It’s a brief “such is life” story, but which came about after actress Abigail Brown’s parents decided she needed to focus on her education; It won’t be the last time we see pupils disappear from the series because of this real-life reason, but it generally happens between series – it is unique that we see Judy for these first two episodes (and she also reappears at the end of Series Two as well). It does allow us, though, in one scene, a rather meta moment where Judy is talking to Suzi – with Suzi, of course, pretty much being her “replacement” in the series. I also like how in a later scene, Trisha teases Judy with Judy’s frequent saying, “…it’s just AWFUL”.
Regarding Judy’s move to Brookdale itself – we have already seen what appears to be a subtle reuse of the “real” Grange Hill school (Kingsbury High School, used s1-2) as another location in the final episode of Series One … And it gets lightly redressed and used in another guise again here, to serve as Brookdale!
One thing which has always fascinated me about Classic Era GH, is how many times teachers visit pupil’s homes, to try and tackle a problem or whatever. Bullet does it in this episode at Benny’s house, he did in the previous ep as well, Miss Sommers goes to a pupil’s home in the next … I didn’t begin school until four years later (coincidentally, this episode was originally broadcast on my first birthday!) and outside of London so maybe things differed, but teachers visiting pupils’ homes on such a willy-nilly basis just seems to strange to me; I wonder how much of this was simply “dramatic license” or not.
The plot regarding the ongoing thefts has several quite “convenient coincidences” – capped off when Mr. Baxter ‘just happens’ to be passing the otherwise deserted area of the school just in time to witness the true thief, Singer and his accomplice roughing up eye-witness Justin, and are caught red-handed carrying the other stolen items. However it is an enjoyable episode; the multi-episode plots are still fairly brief at this point – in future years they will often be spun out for much longer (lest we forget the never-ending saga of Clarke’s missing sodding bike in Series 12!!)
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Judy’s reasons for having to switch school are not explained very well considering Brookdale is close enough to have been both an alternative destination for some of the class’s primary school friends and for an after school football match to be played (and later to be merged into Grange Hill). All this implies that both schools and her new home are all in the same borough so were the rules on catchment areas really so strict back then (and a practice nationwide) that this wasn’t deemed necessary to explain? These days a child is usually able to stay at a school despite a move though younger siblings may find it harder to get a place (and for younger children it’s also hard to a secondary place at the same school as their friends).
Alternatively is this yet another of Mr Llewellyn’s changes?
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I have always been puzzled about Judy’s departure in the second episode.
If they were discontinuing the character, why bring her back anyway just for the first two episodes of Series 2?
I found this plot a little odd – surely if Judy was switching schools, wouldn’t it have been more prudent for her to leave GH at the end of the previous term and start her new school at the start of the new term.
The fact she attends Grange Hill for a week or two before leaving just seems out of place.
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Presumably it was felt they wanted a slightly tougher character as Trisha’s friend and so introduced Cathy. Because she’s briefly present and the beginning and end of S2 it certainly wasn’t because the actor was unavailable.
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According to an interview with Abigail Brown on Grange Hill Gold, it was due to the fact that when the series was extended for a longer run, her parents decided she needed to concentrate on her education. If she had stayed on, she’d likely have had the material given to Suzi. It certainly is a curiosity to have a character return for just a couple of episodes.
New school years at GH would often serve as a good opportunity to quietly clear out either redundant characters or ones where the actor was no longer available; But as it wasn’t a new school year in Series Two (s1-2 are set in the the characters’ first year, s3-4 is their third, by design of Phil Redmond…) maybe they just took the opportunity of Abigail Brown’s being available for a couple of eps to use her and cut down on the abrupt character departures, bearing in mind Ann (who would “become” Penny) , and several of the s1 teachers, also didn’t return for s2.
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