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

Written by Phil Redmond. Tx 8th February 1980

There’s quite a lot going on in this episode. Penny is unhappy that she can’t contribute to the school magazine (following her article on Doyle) but perks up when she realises that Susi can contribute material they can write together.

Andrew Stanton’s parents continue to have marital problems – it’s a piece of incidental story colour that doesn’t seem to be developed at this time, but will eventually pay off in series four when it’s revealed that Andrew’s father has left (taking Karen with him).

There’s also more discussion about the proposed Outdoor Centre, but most of the running time revolves around Benny’s participation in the trials for the district football team. His hopes for selection aren’t helped by the fact that they’re being run by Mr Wainwright (Bernard Kay) who is clearly favouring his own pupils from Brookdale.

It’s always a pleasure to see Bernard Kay of course and the football sequences also paint an interesting picture of late seventies inner-city London life. Location-wise, Grange Hill would change over the years as production moved to different areas (most dramatically, of course, when it moved to Liverpool for the last few series). The match also takes up a fair few minutes and the only dialogue we have to guide us are Gary Hargreaves’ off-camera comments and criticisms.

Benny gets picked but he then has face a dilemma from Mr Baxter – does he choose to play for the district or the school?

The recent (far too early) death of Terry Sue Patt gives this episode an extra poignancy. Benny would tend to fade into the background (or not even appear at all) during series four, so this is one of the last Benny-centric episodes we’ll see.

I need to cut down a bit on my over-analysing of each episode (!) – thankfully that’s not too hard a task with this one, which I confess I find to be quite a dull episode! Odd, because I really like Benny, one of the iconic early GH years characters, and I love Bullet Baxter, one of the all-time classic GH teachers, and, as Gary Hargreaves, Mark Farmer is always good value too. But this episode I just struggle to find a whole lot of interest in … maybe due in part of the fact I’ve never been interested in competitive sport, and this episode is heavily focused on football.

We get the fallout of Penny’s incendiary article for the school magazine and the orders that all copies of the magazine must be recalled and it removed. As much as I love Penny as a character (and Susi with her), for some reason I find this whole plot line rather overdone and unengaging in this episode … although when Penny and Suzy do rush into the toilets to hide from the mob eager to know what Penny had written, we do get the brief but amusing scene of the set wall wobbling as the pair struggle to hold the door closed.

This episode stands out to be for Mr. Baxter – usually being very much of the “strict but fair” ilk – actually being a bit of a b*stard at times, towards Benny. Yes we get that Bullet is extremely passionate about the school doing well in sports, but the fact that Benny is forced to choose between playing for either the school or for the district seems to bring out an uncharacteristically unkind side of Bullet. We do get a couple of lighter moments with him – as he helps himself to Tucker’s last bit of chocolate, and later when some high spirits sees a crisp packet Tucker fills with water, intended for Alan and Benny, instead almost hits Bullet; but overall this episode doesn’t show Bullet – one of my all-time favourite GH characters – at his best.

Later, we also get to see Benny and brother Michael’s bedroom, the first of two times we’ll see it (the second being in two episodes time) and a noticeably different set to when we saw Benny’s bedroom in s1e06. I’ll have to double check but I do believe this scene with Benny, Michael and their Dad, is the only scene in Series Three with Benny to be filmed in the studio – all of Benny’s other appearances in S3 are location work, with Terry Sue Pat’s availability apparently becoming restricted. (When we see the set again in Episode 12, it is a scene with Michael and Duane).

Elsewhere, the episode dates itself as Justin comments “Legs and Co. are alright I suppose, but I prefer Hot Gossip”, referring to the now vintage ‘Top of the Pops’ dancers. In fact, Justin seems downright obsessed with Hot Gossip here, and only shuts up about them when Andrew confides that his parents had another row the previous evening. This storyline, first introduced in Series Two, rumbles away on-and-off again right through until Series Four – seemingly not in a planned out story arc sorta way, but more down to the writers never seeming quite what to do with it or when to run with it. Previously in Episode Three, we have seen hints that the romance between Alan and Susi may have originally intended to have been between Andrew and Susi, so maybe poor old Andrew was simply a character that always got shunted around in storylines and never completely found his place. Either way, when the confidential talk in the woodwork room also results in Andrew getting paint over his trousers, there is more unintentional (debatable) humour with Justin’s insistence Andrew take his trousers off to wash them under the sink. Without wanting to be horribly cliched and base, there has always been a subtle, underlying homoerotic element to Justin and Andrew’s relationship, something I’ve known several fans commenting on over the years.

As for the rest of the episode… Well, it’s nice to see to see reliable character actor Bernard Kay as Brookdale’s sports teacher, who blatantly shows favouritism towards his own Brookdale players being picked for the district, intending to give the Grange Hill lot little chance to shine. I always enjoy stories where the underdogs or downtrodden turn the tables and come up trumps, so it is pleasing when Gary puts this into full effect. Unfortunately, the whole thing drags on and on and on…! Yes I know I’m not a football fan, but even so, the whole sequence goes on for some minutes and lacks and particular spark; in my opinion it would have fared better being intercut with some other storyline to help break it up. Goodness me does it drag, and is one of the very few times during Golden Era ‘Grange Hill’ where I genuinely find myself checking my watch. In concept, the “biased rival school’s PE teacher being put in his place” could have been fun, but it’s execution here is actually quite boring.

It’s not the worst ever episode of GH, not even among the aforementioned “Golden Era”, but it is an episode I do find to be uncommonly dull, with little real hook to it. Definitely my least Series Three episode by far.

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4 thoughts on “Grange Hill. Series Three – Episode Ten”

Michelle says:

January 20, 2021 at 6:19 am

Did I really hear Gary say “get up that end you silly sod”?! The football trial scene seemed interminable.Zzzzz.

LikeLiked by 1 person

- archivetvmusings says:
  
  January 23, 2021 at 8:27 pm
  
  I rather like the football sequences, if only for the fact the setting is authentically early eighties grimy. And it’s a nice Benny-centric episode, which we won’t see many more of (his series four/five appearances are quite sparse).
  
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steveresin says:

August 10, 2022 at 7:17 pm

Shame that Benny fades into the background, I wonder why that decision was made? He’s a good actor and plays a fun character, his antics with Tucker in the first 2 series were the highlight of the show. What a waste.

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P.j. Gathergood says:

August 5, 2025 at 5:07 pm

I need to cut down a bit on my over-analysing of each episode (!) – thankfully that’s not too hard a task with this one, which I confess I find to be quite a dull episode! Odd, because I really like Benny, one of the iconic early GH years characters, and I love Bullet Baxter, one of the all-time classic GH teachers, and, as Gary Hargreaves, Mark Farmer is always good value too. But this episode I just struggle to find a whole lot of interest in … maybe due in part of the fact I’ve never been interested in competitive sport, and this episode is heavily focused on football.

We get the fallout of Penny’s incendiary article for the school magazine and the orders that all copies of the magazine must be recalled and it removed. As much as I love Penny as a character (and Susi with her), for some reason I find this whole plot line rather overdone and unengaging in this episode … although when Penny and Suzy do rush into the toilets to hide from the mob eager to know what Penny had written, we do get the brief but amusing scene of the set wall wobbling as the pair struggle to hold the door closed.

This episode stands out to be for Mr. Baxter – usually being very much of the “strict but fair” ilk – actually being a bit of a b*stard at times, towards Benny. Yes we get that Bullet is extremely passionate about the school doing well in sports, but the fact that Benny is forced to choose between playing for either the school or for the district seems to bring out an uncharacteristically unkind side of Bullet. We do get a couple of lighter moments with him – as he helps himself to Tucker’s last bit of chocolate, and later when some high spirits sees a crisp packet Tucker fills with water, intended for Alan and Benny, instead almost hits Bullet; but overall this episode doesn’t show Bullet – one of my all-time favourite GH characters – at his best.

Later, we also get to see Benny and brother Michael’s bedroom, the first of two times we’ll see it (the second being in two episodes time) and a noticeably different set to when we saw Benny’s bedroom in s1e06. I’ll have to double check but I do believe this scene with Benny, Michael and their Dad, is the only scene in Series Three with Benny to be filmed in the studio – all of Benny’s other appearances in S3 are location work, with Terry Sue Pat’s availability apparently becoming restricted. (When we see the set again in Episode 12, it is a scene with Michael and Duane).

Elsewhere, the episode dates itself as Justin comments “Legs and Co. are alright I suppose, but I prefer Hot Gossip”, referring to the now vintage ‘Top of the Pops’ dancers. In fact, Justin seems downright obsessed with Hot Gossip here, and only shuts up about them when Andrew confides that his parents had another row the previous evening. This storyline, first introduced in Series Two, rumbles away on-and-off again right through until Series Four – seemingly not in a planned out story arc sorta way, but more down to the writers never seeming quite what to do with it or when to run with it. Previously in Episode Three, we have seen hints that the romance between Alan and Susi may have originally intended to have been between Andrew and Susi, so maybe poor old Andrew was simply a character that always got shunted around in storylines and never completely found his place. Either way, when the confidential talk in the woodwork room also results in Andrew getting paint over his trousers, there is more unintentional (debatable) humour with Justin’s insistence Andrew take his trousers off to wash them under the sink. Without wanting to be horribly cliched and base, there has always been a subtle, underlying homoerotic element to Justin and Andrew’s relationship, something I’ve known several fans commenting on over the years.

As for the rest of the episode… Well, it’s nice to see to see reliable character actor Bernard Kay as Brookdale’s sports teacher, who blatantly shows favouritism towards his own Brookdale players being picked for the district, intending to give the Grange Hill lot little chance to shine. I always enjoy stories where the underdogs or downtrodden turn the tables and come up trumps, so it is pleasing when Gary puts this into full effect. Unfortunately, the whole thing drags on and on and on…! Yes I know I’m not a football fan, but even so, the whole sequence goes on for some minutes and lacks and particular spark; in my opinion it would have fared better being intercut with some other storyline to help break it up. Goodness me does it drag, and is one of the very few times during Golden Era ‘Grange Hill’ where I genuinely find myself checking my watch. In concept, the “biased rival school’s PE teacher being put in his place” could have been fun, but it’s execution here is actually quite boring.

It’s not the worst ever episode of GH, not even among the aforementioned “Golden Era”, but it is an episode I do find to be uncommonly dull, with little real hook to it. Definitely my least Series Three episode by far.

LikeLike