On The Cards

Throughout the 1980s, Grange Hill was one of the most popular television programmes  broadcast before 6pm on BBC1. A high number of viewers meant that the cast would receive a lot of fan-mail and so the BBC put together a set of promotional cast cards, that the cast could autograph and then send out in response to any fan-mail. It is thought that this began with Series 4, but became a mainstay of the production from Series 6 onwards. Depending on the popularity of a character, some cast cards were produced in larger numbers, whilst it is thought that some cast did not have a cast card at all!

Some are easy to find and relatively common, whilst others were produced in smaller batches and are much harder to track down. There is in fact no complete list of which cast cards were actually printed. Here at GrangeHillGold we have spent huge amounts of time trying to locate these cast-cards and include them on our site.

Earlier this year we were fortunate enough to be given scans of lots of missing cards from Series 6 and Series 9 , by the amazing Scott Frankton, which you can find by clicking on the links. As an end of year treat have put them on-line for you to enjoy.

If you have any cast cards you think we might be missing and are happy to scan them for our collection, please do not hesitate to contact us.

James Wynn Interview

As promised many years ago, our interview with Graham Wynn aka Mr Graham ‘Sooty’ Sutcliffe finally went on-line earlier this year. If you haven’t read it yet, you can find it here.

Other ‘lost’ interviews we hope to publish soon include Margo Selby (Julie Corrigan), Chris Jury (Mr Knowles) and Anna Holme (The head of Children’s Television who commissioned Grange Hill). Keep your eyes open over the next year as we finally unleash these gems.

Ziggy and Robbie Reunited

Grange Hill legends Robbie Wright and Ziggy Greaves made a dynamic duo during their time at Britain’s favourite secondary school. In November this year, actors John Alford and George Christopher were reunited for a Grange Hill event in Great Yarmouth.

Organised by friends of George Christopher, the event took place at the Pier Tavern on November 4th, and featured a live Q&A session with John and George, as well as autograph and photo opportunities with the pair.

What was clear from this enjoyable event was how George and John’s friendship, developed on screen in the 80s, was just as strong today.
Happy to discuss their memories of
working together at Grange Hill, the duo were keen to make the event a success and chatted to guests throughout the evening, as well as having photos taken by the professional photographer.

During the Q&A subjects up for discussion, besides Grange Hill, included John’s music career (and George’s cameo in his video), George’s time on Brookside and John’s feelings about the recent conviction of the ‘Fake Sheikh’ who sabotaged John’s acting career.

The success of the event was mainly due to George and John themselves; their lively and warm personalities made everyone feel welcome, whilst their own delight at being reunited was shared by all who attended.