Grange Hill creator says broadcast has taken the courage out of it

Grange Hill and Hollyoaks creator Sir Phil Redmond has said that modern broadcasting lacks courage, and suggested that TV monitoring rules should be broken more often.

The creator of the iconic soap opera said that strict programming was important and there was a void for today’s youth.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sir Phil suggested that social media was a major issue that needed to be explored explicitly through television dramas.

“I think the problem is that broadcasting has really lost its courage and there’s a lot of risk aversion,” Sir Phil told the show’s guest editor Sir Sajid Javid on Friday.

Sir Phil was joined at the event by Ofcom chairman Lord Michael Grade and Grange Hill star Michelle Gayle, who respectively added mental health and misogyny to the list of topics being reflected on realistically on television.

Sir Phil said, “There is a place for something like Grange Hill, and from my career, I’ve always found that the more difficult you made the story, the more you’d upset the regulators, but the audiences loved it just the same.” More appreciated.”

Viewers live the issues explored by such programs, he said, “and what they want to see is their own lives represented on screen as realistically as possible”.

Lord Grade agreed with Sir Phil, and said there was “absolutely, no harm” in bothering Ofcom.

He said, “It was a wonderful, wonderful show. It changed television in more ways than I think people realized.”

Before Grange Hill, Lord Grade had compared youth television to “Enid Blyton’s world”, featuring gentle stories.

“Then came Grange Hill, as you get older the worries come in there,” he said.

Grange Hill was a series that aired on the BBC from 1978 to 2008 and told the story of life at a London comprehensive school.

It was known for its gritty social realism, racism as well as its exploration of drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, mental illness, and HIV and AIDS.

Ms. Gale, who played student Fiona Wilson, said that she was never labeled a “diversity hire”, and that her character “existed naturally” within the show.

“There was nothing like, ‘This is woke casting,'” he said.

“It was a multicultural school because that was what most schools were experiencing at the time.

“It’s never ‘you’re the black person,’ or ‘you’re the symbol,’ it’s ‘let’s show what’s happening right now,'” she said.

Asked what issues the guests would consider if Grange Hill aired today, Lord Grade suggested mental health and family relationships.

“These are big stories today and very emotionally engaging,” he said.

Picking up on the growing prevalence of misogyny, Ms Gayle said: “I think there needs to be a real conversation about getting a hold of TV, getting young boys to watch it so they don’t get exposed to this toxic resonance (of social media). Get out of the room.”

Sir Phil said that social media would be the issue to be dealt with.

“There’s no counter to that and that’s what Grange Hill offered,” he said.

“It didn’t matter what the issue was… Grange Hill would always offer some solution or some way out and ask someone about the issue, but in the end, it’s basically, you Don’t depend on you.”