Written by Phil Redmond. Tx 2nd March 1979
The end of the school year is approaching and Grange Hill chooses to mark it with an open day and a series of projects. The first years project is “The History of Grange Hill” – a subject which doesn’t fill Cathy with a great deal of enthusiasm. She wonders which crawler thought that one up (possibly it’s not a surprise that it was Penny Lewis – embarrassingly she happened to be sitting opposite Cathy at the time she made the comment!)
For many of the first years, it’s the last time we’ll see them in school uniform as when series three opens, uniform has been made optional. Cathy and Trisha are given the job of designing a project about school uniform through the ages, which gives them an early chance to wear something a little more casual.
There’s a nice bit of continuity as Judy Preston makes a reappearance. Along with a few of her classmates at Brookdale, she’s come to propose a quiz between Brookdale and Grange Hill. Mr Llewellyn agrees and this brings the series to its conclusion.
It’s also the last time we’ll see Sean Arnold as Mr Llewellyn. Although Llewellyn remains headmaster for series three, he’s only ever referred to and never actually seen (after a while this becomes obvious – he’s always away at conferences or otherwise unavailable). And it won’t be the last time that Grange Hill will have a head teacher who’s conspicuous by their absence.
There’s a bit of a kerfuffle at the quiz after Doyle and his friends lock Hughes (who’s dreading taking part anyway) in a cupboard. With the clock ticking down to the start, there’s a mild crisis when he can’t be found. It’s very mild, to be honest, as it’s hardly the most gripping of plots, but it fills a few minutes.
The news that Mr Mitchell is leaving comes as a surprise, although Doyle (thanks to his family connections) already knew. But whilst teachers and pupils come and go, life at Grange Hill goes on.
Archive Television Musings 
Mr Mitchell was one of the first ‘central’ teachers in Grange Hill and one of the few adult characters to survive beyond Series One, as several casting changes were made after the first year.
Michael Percival was a key part of the early episodes and it was a shame he bowed out here. His final scene is quite ‘low key’ and bittersweet – there’s no big farewells, he simply tells the kids he’s moving on at the end of term.
Michael Percival continued to appear in guest roles on TV and film for a number of years. He was even a guest on Todd Carty’s ‘This Is Your Life’ where he offered some kind words about his time with Todd on GH.
Sadly, I believe Michael died a few years ago, although his death was never made public in the media, due to the fact he wasn’t acting at the time.
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He did indeed pass away, in September 2015, and it was covered in several news outlets. As the original teacher of the series, seeing him leave in this episode always feels a bit sad, like the end of the first chapter. He was almost like the glue that held Series One together.
At least he actually got properly written out – often, when they were filming, they wouldn’t yet know who was or wasn’t returning for the following series, so the fact that Mr. Mitchell’s departure at least gets acknowledged on-screen is some small compensation, at least.
As I’ve just covered on my post somewhere below in the comments, he left after the number of episodes per series was doubled from 9 in Series One, to 18 in Series Two – he was concerned that committing so such a long run each year was limiting him from accepting other roles. (In the instance of the other cast changes from Series One, in the case of non-returning pupils, it was due to the young actors choosing to focus on their education, which would happen many years of the series, and in cases like Roger Sloman, he was unavailable to commit to a longer run).
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Yeah I hope the actor was moving onto other things.Not just the production team looking to shake things up with new teachers.With new first years coming in series 3 Mitchell would have been a good head teacher to have for their scenes.
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Just mentioned it in my own post somewhere down below on the page … But it was due, after Series One being such a success, to the number of episodes being doubled from 9 to 18, which he was concerned limited him from taking other roles, being committed to such a long run each year. It was a shame to see him go, Grange Hill’s original teacher; it was like the end of the first chapter when he left.
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In a way, the events of the closing episode of Series Two are a bit small-scale when compared to many of the storylines and events witnessed over Series Two, with Hughesy getting locked in a cupboard by Doyle just as he’s about to take his seat with the school quiz team, being about the most dramatic thing to happen. But that’s not saying it’s bad, far from it – it serves as a good wind-down from a particularly strong run of episodes.
It is interesting (and maybe unexpected) to see Judy again, after she departed Grange Hill back in Episode Two this series. Regarding the abrupt “goodbyes” between Trisha and Judy back in Episode Two (to which I mused maybe they would still see each other outside of school), Judy says to Trisha: “You never kept in touch did you”, to which Trisha responds “Well neither did you” (maybe making that whole previous, abrupt “Bye then” scene seem all the more curious. We hear mention of Brookdale’s headmistress, a Mrs. Carrington. When Judy and her mother were shown around Brookdale in Episode 2, they were shown around by a Mr. Bolton, whom we might have presumed to be the headmaster, although it was never explicitly stated.
Arriving at Grange Hill with Judy are a couple of other Brookdale pupils to propose an end of term quiz against the two schools (maybe left it a bit late to plan, but hey ho!) again is Lawrie Mark, of Britain’s first black sitcom ‘The Fosters’ / ‘Sammy’s Super T-Shirt’ / unbroadcast episode of ‘The Professionals’ et al, seemingly playing the same Brookdale pupil in s2e14. Curiously he’s not credited for this second appearance, even though he has dialogue; It also seems to be the ringleader of the gang that Tucker and. co tangled with in that episode on one of the Brookie quiz teams (Michael Sampson I believe, again uncredited here).
Also, I believe this is the only episode where Hughes’ first name – Joseph – is ever given, when the headmaster is calling out the selected names for the quiz. Once again, we see Hughsey to be quite indecisive and dithering in this episode, a running character trait.
Alongside Tucker’s (seemingly quite impressive) model of the current day Grange Hill – a plot which we might expect to have some hilariously disastrous outcome but which surprisingly doesn’t – is a model of some upcoming changes to the school; Mr. Llewellyn comments that the fire in the assembly hall may have been a blessing in disguise and that county hall have been persuaded to give them an improvement grant. Although this does imply the resolving of the previous fire damage storyline, and his comment to Mr. Baxter which implies it should all go smoothly if they all work together – a reference to the chaos at the start of term, to which Baxter threatened strike action – these apparent upcoming modifications to the school might, with some very creative explanation, be used as a reason as to why the exterior of the school will suddenly look different the following series, with filming for the school moving to Willesden High School, now Capital City Academy, for Series 3&4!! 🙂
In keeping with my “Trying to make sense of random things” vibe, a few scenes later we cut into a scene where Mr. Mitchell is talking to an unidentified father of a pupil. We are never told who this man is… But I’d love to think it might be the solo appearance of Tucker’s dad! Mitch’s dialogue: “No, he’s done very well, especially in sports, and has equipped himself quite well academically, even if he has given us all a few gray hairs from time to time”… it could just about tally. For all of his boasting, Tucker did fairly well in the cricket match (s2e11), even if Justin did save the day; “…equipped himself quite well academically” could be diplomatic Mitch looking for something good to say, but we have seen Tucker to be fairly good at some subjects (art, at least), and the “given us all a few gray hairs from time to time” thing certainly tallies! (By the way, I did go back to check if it might be Andrew’s dad, briefly seen attending the production in s2e13, but it’s not).
There is mild drama with Doyle locking Hughes in a cupboard, and near defeat as Brookdale beat Grange Hill in the quiz by one point. It’s all fairly low key (it’s surprising, with Tucker and co.’s Brooke enemies from s2e14, setting foot on GH territory, nothing at all was made of that) but it’s all reasonably pleasant – and at least gives Susi’s mother chance to see how bright her daughter actually is!
All that’s left is for Mr. Mitchell to confirm the rumour that he is indeed leaving. The original teacher of the original class of the series… His leaving does feel like the end of the first chapter, in a way. (In reality, after the number of episodes doubled after Series One from 9 to 18, Michael Percival was concerned that it was limiting him from taking other roles and asked to be written out).
The following year, a new intake will share screen time with the existing pupils, non-studio filming for the school will shift to Willesden High School, and the general tone of the series can be felt to move onto it’s next stage. A parliamentary hearing on the protest events of Episodes 11-12, and subsequent “unofficial meeting over lunch” at the Beeb with Phil Redmond and the agreement to tone some things down, would also influence this change.
It is also the final time we see the lovely Miss Summers (Philomena McDonagh), for me one of the highlights of Series Two, a shame she didn’t continue one. And – as well as the final appearance of secretary Janet (Stella Haime) this is, of course, the final time we’ll actually see headmaster Mr. Llewellyn on-screen … although if we are to believe events on-screen for the next couple of years, he has literally just been called away or is in a meeting and we’ve all just missed him. Maybe, despite his interest in seeing the quiz becoming an annual fixture, the inter-school quiz never being seen again was down to him always being busy elsewhere(!)
By the way, in the final scene, Tucker gives Mr. Mitchell a leaving gift of his rubber chicken foot, part of the first story of Series Two, in a way bringing things full circle.
Series One of ‘Grange Hill’ was very good; Series Two really built upon that and found it’s footing, tweaking some things (particularly storylines that could span a couple of episodes) and offering a good variety of storylines. For some reason, the storyline of Simon not being able to read and Trisha trying to help him, is my favourite story of the year, although the “stalker” episode (actually Cathy’s dad) plot is also very good, even if a lot of it’s elements do feel surprisingly rushed in their conclusion (in future years, the story would likely have been spun out for a number more episodes). Oh, and for Tucker, Alan and Benny misguided adventures fun, the “old sofa” misunderstanding of Episode Five is great, too! And to think, in Grange Hill time, which does not tally with reality, this is actually only the end of the first year.
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