Grange Hill. Series Three – Episode Four | Archive Television Musings

Written by Margaret Simpson. Tx 18th January 1980

It’s time for the school council elections. Penny Lewis is the current rep but some people, like Trisha and Doyle, aren’t happy with her. Trisha and Penny are totally opposite characters – which brings a healthy dose of conflict into their relationship.

Trisha and Cathy are irritated about having nowhere to go during the lunch-breaks, so that’s one of the reasons why Trisha decides to stand as a council rep. If elected, she’ll request that the third-formers have access to common rooms, like the fifth-formers.

Doyle later makes the reasonable point to Miss Peterson that since there’s more girls than boys, any boy rep doesn’t stand much of a chance of getting elected. Miss Peterson counters that surely sex wouldn’t be the first consideration, whilst Trisha mutters that it’s all the boys ever think about!

But Doyle’s in the right place at the right time, as it’s been decided that having both male and female reps in each year would be fair. Doyle is elected third year boy rep (much to the disgust of Penny) whilst both Penny and Trisha are beaten by an unknown outsider. All of Doyle’s policies are good – they should be, since they were pilfered from both Penny and Trisha.

Before the results come in, there’s an epic fight between Penny and Trisha (Penny calls Trisha “a nasty two-faced bitch” which kicks off proceedings). Tucker has nothing to do whilst the argument between Penny and Trisha is bubbling away – but Todd Carty’s facial expressions are a delight and he goes a long way to stealing the scene.

Doyle’s victory will continue to rankle with Penny for the rest of series three, which makes it a fruitful source of conflict between the pair of them.

Elsewhere, Miss Mooney appears to be the worst possible science teacher. She finds herself distracted by the loss of her glasses (which were on her head all the time). Whilst she’s fretting about her glasses, there’s a small fire, which Tucker manages to put out. He’s later berated for this – yes he did put the fire out, but he started it in the first place! This seems a little unfair, as it was an accident, and if the pupils aren’t adequately supervised surely some of the blame should rest with the teacher.

One thought on “Grange Hill. Series Three – Episode Four”

Phil Redmond’s love of inserting politics into the early years of the series becomes apparent again here (even though Redmond didn’t pen this particular episode),

As well as bringing Doyle – who hasn’t had much to do for ages – back into the spotlight, it sets the stage for a demonstration of how Trisha and Penny really don’t like each other’s ways. This might have been hinted at in the vaguest of ways previously but it’s the first time we ever see opposition of these two characters at play.

Trisha and Penny are very different characters and yet in some ways very similar. Both incredibly headstrong, both insistent that THEIR way is the right way at times, and yet their methods are quite different. As we’ve seen in the past, Trisha can sometimes be impulsive, eager to see things done via whatever means but not always thinking things through logically; Penny, on the other hand, believes in doing things through the correct channels, though this itself can sometimes result in little if anything actually appearing to be done about anything as things getting bogged down in red tape and endless school council meetings where nothing much seems to be the outcome, which is pretty much what sets the scene here.

Not that the seeming lack of action is necessarily Penny’s fault – we hear from her that they have been waiting for the school tuck shop for ages, despite this supposedly being in the works during the latter half of their first year (Series Two), although this may arguably be one of the instances where the writers are forgetting that there has been a whole year, unseen on-screen, since then. Similarly, Mr. Hopwood mentions that Penny was the year rep in the first year and that maybe someone else could have a turn – seeming to completely forget there has been that unseen second year in-between.

Tucker and Alan (Benny is very little seen during this batch of episodes) seem far less antagonistic towards Doyle at this point, sometimes seen to be sat casually chatting with him and it might appear, even quietly amused by some of his carrying ons. Alan and Doyle already seemed to be on reasonable terms during the school trip (Episodes 15-16) the previous series; the inbuilt rivalry between Tucker and Doyle will remain throughout their time on the series, but it is noticeably relaxed and put into the background at times, this being just one such instance.

This episode also shows it’s age in several ways. As well as, production-wise, some appallingly bad mic work in one of the classroom scenes, where some dialogue delivered by some extras is barely picked up by the mic boom, but it is dated by some of the music, including Cliff Richard’s ‘Devil Woman’ – very hardcore! – playing on Radio London (as referenced in the dialogue) on Trisha’s “tranny” which she is carrying around with her – no MP3 players in this era, and even the Walkmans which will provide several plot points in Series 8 (1985) are a few years away yet!
On a VERY trivial note, when Mr. Hopwood shoos Trisha, Cathy and Sudhanami outside during break, they exit and are supposedly “outside” but are still on the indoor studio set, marking unless I am much mistaken, the only time a studio set would be used to represent somewhere outside in the series – with the brief few lines of dialogue before the end of the scene, shooting this brief exchange on location was obviously deemed unnecessary.

Elsewhere, we hear mention that Sally, part of the new first year, is away after anther of her “fits”. The seeds for her heart condition, which will become more prominent in Episode Five, a sown in several of these episodes earlier in Series Three – except, as I’ve mentioned on one of my previous comments, much of the new first year are a unmemorable lot who are hard to really warm to. Amanda Mealing gives a good performance as Tracy, but Carey Born’s character, Karen, just doesn’t seem very well rounded or noteworthy at all, and it is quite easy to miss this build-up to Sally’s tumble in a couple of episodes time.

Meanwhile, in science class, Miss Mooney goes full on Velma-from-Scooby-Doo when she loses her glasses (they were on her head), giving rise to chaos and a small fire breaking out. This is what I mean when I’ve said previously about Miss Mooney – sometimes her scatty character can be vaguely charming, yet at other times, this being a prime example, you might literally find yourself shouting at the screen whenever her whole scatty routine is in action.
Poor old Tucker really gets a bad deal out of all this, ending up in the (absent) head’s office as a result. Yes, he did unwittingly start the fire, but he also was the one who put it out, whilst Miss Mooney was busy faffing around. Such plotting during Series Three can feel a little awkward at times – and it surely can’t all be down to the last minute alterations prior to filming. The whole science incident thing was clearly intended as comedy, and likely designed for “that old rascal” Tucker’s mischief to be a contributing factor, but on-screen it all feels handled very awkward and unsatisfying.

Speaking of the ever-absent head, here we get to see first year head Mrs. Kennedy again, the second of just four appearances before “covering for the head’s absence” duties will generally go to Mr. Keating.

The highlight of the episode is, of course, the fight between Trisha and Penny – Penny calling Trisha “…a nasty two-faced bitch”, which surely would have had blue-rinsers writing to ‘Points of View’ and the Radio Times in droves again that week. It is one of the more prominent examples of (mildly) bad language in the series, which was toned down somewhat after Series Two (as I’ve mentioned previously, by the end start of the 1990s, “bitch” was used prominently in several episodes of Children’s ITV’s ‘Press Gang’, albeit with a warning before each episode). Already prior in this episode, during the form rep voting when Miss Peterson states that sex shouldn’t be the first consideration, Cathy has commented that “…it’s all the boys ever think about”, which itself surely had one or two “Is this appropriate for children’s teatime television” comments from one or two.

During the big fight, Todd Carty does indeed stand in the background clearly enjoying it all, whether this was intended or Carty was just enjoying standing back and watching it all unfold, who knows.

An okay-ish episode, but lacking some of the sparkle of Series Two, and the sometimes clunky writing and plot handling, even by regular, reliable series writers (Margaret Simpson, in this case) does really become apparent at around this point in Series Three.

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P.j. Gathergood says:

July 27, 2025 at 12:55 pm

Phil Redmond’s love of inserting politics into the early years of the series becomes apparent again here (even though Redmond didn’t pen this particular episode),

As well as bringing Doyle – who hasn’t had much to do for ages – back into the spotlight, it sets the stage for a demonstration of how Trisha and Penny really don’t like each other’s ways. This might have been hinted at in the vaguest of ways previously but it’s the first time we ever see opposition of these two characters at play.

Trisha and Penny are very different characters and yet in some ways very similar. Both incredibly headstrong, both insistent that THEIR way is the right way at times, and yet their methods are quite different. As we’ve seen in the past, Trisha can sometimes be impulsive, eager to see things done via whatever means but not always thinking things through logically; Penny, on the other hand, believes in doing things through the correct channels, though this itself can sometimes result in little if anything actually appearing to be done about anything as things getting bogged down in red tape and endless school council meetings where nothing much seems to be the outcome, which is pretty much what sets the scene here.

Not that the seeming lack of action is necessarily Penny’s fault – we hear from her that they have been waiting for the school tuck shop for ages, despite this supposedly being in the works during the latter half of their first year (Series Two), although this may arguably be one of the instances where the writers are forgetting that there has been a whole year, unseen on-screen, since then. Similarly, Mr. Hopwood mentions that Penny was the year rep in the first year and that maybe someone else could have a turn – seeming to completely forget there has been that unseen second year in-between.

Tucker and Alan (Benny is very little seen during this batch of episodes) seem far less antagonistic towards Doyle at this point, sometimes seen to be sat casually chatting with him and it might appear, even quietly amused by some of his carrying ons. Alan and Doyle already seemed to be on reasonable terms during the school trip (Episodes 15-16) the previous series; the inbuilt rivalry between Tucker and Doyle will remain throughout their time on the series, but it is noticeably relaxed and put into the background at times, this being just one such instance.

This episode also shows it’s age in several ways. As well as, production-wise, some appallingly bad mic work in one of the classroom scenes, where some dialogue delivered by some extras is barely picked up by the mic boom, but it is dated by some of the music, including Cliff Richard’s ‘Devil Woman’ – very hardcore! – playing on Radio London (as referenced in the dialogue) on Trisha’s “tranny” which she is carrying around with her – no MP3 players in this era, and even the Walkmans which will provide several plot points in Series 8 (1985) are a few years away yet!
On a VERY trivial note, when Mr. Hopwood shoos Trisha, Cathy and Sudhanami outside during break, they exit and are supposedly “outside” but are still on the indoor studio set, marking unless I am much mistaken, the only time a studio set would be used to represent somewhere outside in the series – with the brief few lines of dialogue before the end of the scene, shooting this brief exchange on location was obviously deemed unnecessary.

Elsewhere, we hear mention that Sally, part of the new first year, is away after anther of her “fits”. The seeds for her heart condition, which will become more prominent in Episode Five, a sown in several of these episodes earlier in Series Three – except, as I’ve mentioned on one of my previous comments, much of the new first year are a unmemorable lot who are hard to really warm to. Amanda Mealing gives a good performance as Tracy, but Carey Born’s character, Karen, just doesn’t seem very well rounded or noteworthy at all, and it is quite easy to miss this build-up to Sally’s tumble in a couple of episodes time.

Meanwhile, in science class, Miss Mooney goes full on Velma-from-Scooby-Doo when she loses her glasses (they were on her head), giving rise to chaos and a small fire breaking out. This is what I mean when I’ve said previously about Miss Mooney – sometimes her scatty character can be vaguely charming, yet at other times, this being a prime example, you might literally find yourself shouting at the screen whenever her whole scatty routine is in action.
Poor old Tucker really gets a bad deal out of all this, ending up in the (absent) head’s office as a result. Yes, he did unwittingly start the fire, but he also was the one who put it out, whilst Miss Mooney was busy faffing around. Such plotting during Series Three can feel a little awkward at times – and it surely can’t all be down to the last minute alterations prior to filming. The whole science incident thing was clearly intended as comedy, and likely designed for “that old rascal” Tucker’s mischief to be a contributing factor, but on-screen it all feels handled very awkward and unsatisfying.

Speaking of the ever-absent head, here we get to see first year head Mrs. Kennedy again, the second of just four appearances before “covering for the head’s absence” duties will generally go to Mr. Keating.

The highlight of the episode is, of course, the fight between Trisha and Penny – Penny calling Trisha “…a nasty two-faced bitch”, which surely would have had blue-rinsers writing to ‘Points of View’ and the Radio Times in droves again that week. It is one of the more prominent examples of (mildly) bad language in the series, which was toned down somewhat after Series Two (as I’ve mentioned previously, by the end start of the 1990s, “bitch” was used prominently in several episodes of Children’s ITV’s ‘Press Gang’, albeit with a warning before each episode). Already prior in this episode, during the form rep voting when Miss Peterson states that sex shouldn’t be the first consideration, Cathy has commented that “…it’s all the boys ever think about”, which itself surely had one or two “Is this appropriate for children’s teatime television” comments from one or two.

During the big fight, Todd Carty does indeed stand in the background clearly enjoying it all, whether this was intended or Carty was just enjoying standing back and watching it all unfold, who knows.

An okay-ish episode, but lacking some of the sparkle of Series Two, and the sometimes clunky writing and plot handling, even by regular, reliable series writers (Margaret Simpson, in this case) does really become apparent at around this point in Series Three.

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