BBC Grange Hill 1st intro 1978

[zemarnah]

Cool or what!!

[gibson4676]

Flippin heck, this takes me back 30 years plus which is scary! Running home from school to watch G.H. when 'Tucker' was in the 1st year (they call it year 7 now)

[Barcrest]

I work in a school and when I first started took great delight in shouting Kendal down a packed corridor.... Just blasted this tune out, Great times.

[rick66649]

any one remember Brendon chase...

[Tungstencube66]

@rick66649 Yep, smoko joes cabin.

[rick66649]

any one remember a show called.. going out about a group of lads ..think one of them was in the bill i remember it being great ...probably shit really...never seen it repeated any where....

[joannedj1]

The flying sausage is legendary!!! :D

[SirSathington]

@joannedj1 Always made me laugh that hehe

[Wook5ter]

Gripper promoted flattops.

[Phrase]

They don't make theme tunes like that any more!

OMG I sound like my parents...

[pixiesprimecut]

Let's repeat television from say.....1980 ?

[Tungstencube66]

Happy days, oh what happened?

[077glenn]

I'd just started my 1st term at Secondry School when Tucker and co started theirs.

[Davewise1965]

I was 13 years old when Grange Hill started in 1978, great show.

[1977Harrier]

That forked sausage made me the man I am today.

[Jermyn78]

I used to watch Grange Hill when I was younger, the mid-80'd period with Ziggy, Mrs McLuskey and of course, Mr Bronson was my fave era.

[MrTillyayre]

@Jermyn78 BOY!!!

[jazzx251]

@Jermyn78

I always hoped someone would choke Mr Bronson to death.

Lucky me - it happened during Empire Strikes Back!

[AnglOsAxOn2]

I used to love this programme, I am lucky enough to have see the first episode.

[BaboonLoveMonkey]

Great theme from Grange Hill's heyday (I hated it when they turned it from a teen's to a kid's show). Was there ever a long version of Chicken Man?

[bopkick5]

i wasnt allowed to watch it. mi parentz said No.

[vania1013]

my nick name was tucker happy days kids could anything and we did not need drugs knifes and guns

[AnglOsAxOn2]

@vania1013 Nicely said, it was a different time from now in many ways.

[zagreus316]

3 people were bullied at school by Roland

[psychoboy60]

Never heard of this show before (being American and all) but the DVD commentary on "Spaced" brought me here.

[unclemort1960]

@psychoboy60 grange hill was great because school dramas before had been about rich kids in public (fee-paying) schools having midnight feasts in the `dorms` GH ran the topical storyline of the schoolboy heroin addict (the kid who played the part runs a key -cutting shop near where i live)

[psychoboy60]

@unclemort1960 That's interesting. Wouldn't have picked up on that from the whimsical opening sequence. I might have to give it a look...if I can find it anywhere.

[unclemort1960]

@psychoboy60 there was also racial/bullying/adolescent stories . in my schooldays (early/mid 70s) i remember a teacher asking a kid if he `was proud of his school`the kid replied ,bluntly ,`no` that could have almost been GH 10 years prior

[ultimateMacgregor]

The original Grange Hill was always the best.

[soulcaz]

@ultimateMacgregor i totally agree!

[LOCOMOTIONNUMBER1]

A secondary modern school where none kids were swearing........get away!

[Cool2BCeltic]

I think Roy Lichtenstein's fees for producing these opening graphics must have swallowed a lot of the budget.

[TheLexyboy]

my mate is adamant they lifted the music from a 70's porno he once saw

[andybrad84]

i dont remember watching this theme tune at the time it was out as i was too young but i remember them repeating grange hill from the very start around 1994/95 time. On bbc two sundays mornings if i remember right. Where does the time go lol

[boffinme80]

Grnage Hill was the best! I think it went downhill after Tucker left. It just wasn't the same anymore. The new episodes are rubbish though.

[64SamoDude]

Sign My Petiton to Bring More Grange Hill On to dvd.

bit . ly / ih7Pu5

Remove The Spaces.

[racefaceec90]

EPIC!!!

[AbhiB]

why do I think of Homer Simpson looking baffled at what he done wrong at 0:29

[ssruk]

Why do all good things have to come to an end, they just don't make children's programmes like this any more :(

[BuddyFantastic]

i loved the piss take "Palace Hill" better.

[CreamedCheesed]

Grange Hill (and I’m talking late 90’s Grange Hill here) made me terrified of the thought of going to secondary school.

Turns out, it WAS a fucking nightmare.

[jazzx251]

@CreamedCheesed

Well, pity the 1978 version then!

You had so many school bullies it was untrue, and they were just the teachers.

The kids were even worse - who could forget Gripper Stepson? Extracting lunch money and being a general arse.

But - that's what was good about the show, it tried to genuinely represent the average inner city state school in a realistic way.

Probably the best ever soap opera designed especially for school kids.

Phil Redmond - legend.

[AutomanZ]

wheres Bronsons wig??

[dpb4free]

Sodomy is as common as a handshake in British public schools " Pastor Deacon

Fred. Landover Deacon Fred.

[anonUK]

@rightfredsdead

Well, racism is a many-headed beast and some people are determined to find it lurking, either where it isn't present, or where it is parodied or criticised. I should know, I regularly read the Guardian website and meet many of these misguided though well-intentioned souls who see racism and other -isms everywhere. Their peak was from around 1987-1993, at the height of "political correctness", when their ideas were taken as gospel by most public bodies.

[scrumpbee]

@rightfredsdead What was the meaning?I watched Grange Hill from the start until I left school in the mid 80's and it never occured to me it was someone throwing a sausage at a coloured girl.I just simply thought as all my mates did that someone didn't want their sausage and was sticking it on someone elses plate.

[TigerAmongstMen]

My dad was in this.

[scrumpbee]

@TigerAmongstMen Which one was your dad Tiger?

[TigerAmongstMen]

@scrumpbee Zammo, unfortunately. Dad says it was his hardest role.

[dantastic15]

This kids show was simply amazing! Entertainment for a time never to return!

[grahamt1978]

makes me feel about 90 watching this

[mackinl]

rokeby school e15 1978.lol.

[grahamlong]

Amazing!!!

How long did they use this intro for? Only reason I ask is that I was born in 76 and still remember watching it :-)

[carrroad]

@grahamlong This theme tune (The chicken song by Alan Hawkshaw) was used with the comic strip titles until 1988 when an updated version replaced it. The theme tune was changed entirely in 1990.

[TrinityXProductions]

Mark Savage who played Gripper Stebson has recently made an appearance in an independent film called 'Total Reaction'. The independent film is made my Trinity X Productions and his role was a butcher! The trailers are on our channel!

[Cool2BCeltic]

I wonder how much the BBC paid Roy Lichtenstein for designing the opening titles.

[01rindy]

THIS VERSION IS BETTER THAN THE 90'S CRAP!

[funkyyfrank]

Wow! That Bassline is as Phat n Funky as that sausage!

[SpursManDan1]

Who would really throw a sausage?

[Rowan07001484]

the acting in this show is terrible, but I never used to mind that when I was a kid. Course I didn't watch it in 1978, I wasn't born till 9 years later, but I watched the one from the 90's.

[zaftra]

blimey, this was my intro I use to watch, takes me back. Sad those days have gone.

[BiroDark]

Why do we only remember the sausage? Oh and ... "Zammo chased the dragon and got a smack on the nose...."

[ourjon1289]

LOL !! This video is aimed at ALL my friends from the 80's :)

Remember rushing home from school to watch this?

Who thought Mrs McClusky looked like Mrs Nadin?

[DrKincade]

I am sure that this theme tune was used for something else on the BBC just before Grange Hill started. Am I correct in this thought, can someone enlighten me here?

[outofthegreenmist]

@DrKincade Yeah, there was a quiz show on ITV (presented by Michael Aspel) which had the same theme. I'm not sure which show had it first, but, for a while, they were both using the tune at the same time.

[jemmabond]

@outofthegreenmist You are right - the name of that quiz show was Give Us a Clue.

[outofthegreenmist]

@DrKincade Update - the tune is called "Chicken Man" and was used in the early series of "Give Us A Clue"!

[BNCA70]

when I was at school I threw food and I probably threw the odd sausage. But I never threw a sausage with the fork still in it. ha ha.

[FindingMyF33t]

That last part of the song is fucking epppiiic

[SSSmeat]

ive got series 1-11 on dvd of grange hill

anyone got series 12 and above that wants to trade or sell get in touch

cheers

ps . im looking for both series of JONNY BRIGS too

[Deak77]

This into is, was and always will be about the flying sausage, cracking stuff!

[LOCOMOTIONNUMBER1]

This programme was nothing like the borstal I attended. At least my school was approved by a judge.

[cujo9]

ahh i remember this  , late 70s london on a spring day , early afternoonish , that school shot just there takes you right back.

[gsh73la]

@cujo9 Which part of London ? :o)

[cujo9]

@gsh73la south , lambeth in the 70s .

[Kubo220374]

Our headmaster used to try to persuade us not to watch this, citing the terrible way the children spoke, and recommended Blue Peter and John Craven's Newsround. I remember watching the opening titles and then losing interest. Once you'd seen the sausage, everything else was an anticlimax

[kpuc1973]

@Kubo220374 my mum never let me watch this in case i picked up bad ideas etc etc stupid woman.

[scoopy7357]

dougielove1973 is a racist who calls black people "monkeys", your bang out of order and the rest of you aswell who agree with him and leaving other comments.

[scoopy7357]

Why are you a racist dougielove1973?, "is he taking the sausage off the monkeys plate or putting it ON his plate?" To call a black child a "monkey" is bang out of order and show's just how stupid you are!

[listeningtofire]

All hail the sausage!

[tonymontana1974]

0:19

[VengaboysRbackINtown]

People ALWAYS make a big deal about the sausage. It's an overused meme like "daleks can't climb stairs". It's only a pissing sausage!!!

[gyrovague]

LOL

[Spyritus]

Daleks totally can climb stairs though.

[afuzzyduck]

yeah. but the daleks thing is funny, because dalek's have been able to climb stairs since that one in the eighties

[grovelbean]

I always thought the theme tune sounded a bit like "Politician" by Cream

[Scrabbler27]

I was 8 and started watching Grange hill in 1988. I loved the music then it was changed. The original was better

[welshfilmbuff]

I always thought this sounded like porn muzak.

[jemmabond]

Because of this intro, they banned sausages in my school cafeteria.

By the way, if you go to 0:04, they give a Nazi salute!

[RomansBigBugle]

LOL

[djronniejames]

wow i remember watchin this here in australia back in the late seventies early eighties..

cool stuff..

[kenfig]

I remember this repeated in summer hols 1978 ; i think it was repeats anyway

[OneAndForAll]

IN GOES THE FORKED SAUSAGE!

[JamieWilliamsAus]

@OneAndForAll ...ahhh, the old sausage on the fork.... i swear thats the main bit that sticks in all of our.minds.... !!!!

[popnoodlesvideo]

@JamieWilliamsAus mine too - watch v=I3Shh1KA384 the sausage lives on (about 50 seconds in )

[MrSteveo80]

I understand alot of sad parents and teachers called for Grange Hill to banned when it first come out.

Stupid arseholes and they wonder why kids don't repsect their elders.

[arrisfilms]

Are you kidding I thought it was like a harmless fun show

[m9mike9]

Everyone always remarks about the sausage! That is the best bit by far.

[ashie259]

I've never understood it. If it was someone pinching the sausage, I could understand it. But it's someone turning up at the table with a sausage... Makes no sense.

[carbonbodyworker]

Funky as feck

Fond memories of this stuff when i arrived home from school in the 80's,smart.

Trimm trabs,gazelles,munchens and all the other adidas sneaks were huge for us in n/w uk.

[alfboggis]

Sausage on a fork!

[mrlob22]

that swassarge looks great!

[actresstobe1408]

i always wanted to be in grangehill but now its over :( and yes i am a kid well 16 but u get what i mean im not a childish adult

[givmespace]

ha 16 you only started paying adult fair on the bus this year.

youre still a kid accept it and love it :D

[actresstobe1408]

attually i have a post school buspass so i still pay halfs till im 18

[2strong2cool]

ur an adultish child?

[actresstobe1408]

no im just over the age of watching cbbc lol

[Rockchickcharlz]

My relitave was in grange hill!!!

[steeltownbrown52]

Sounds like a ill break beat. How come no one in hip hop has sampled this tune?

[2strong2cool]

they have

[grako76]

SAUSAGE!!!!!!!!!

[captainpanic08]

It's time for an industrial rock cover of this theme song.

[orkavorn]

Classic! The sausage bit always cracked me up :D

[1975corleone]

@orkavorn

Thats what your girl said....LOL!!

[RNC200707]

Iconic

[jinshanling]

Trisha Yates, nuff said :)

[alexoidztube]

Grange Hill became Eastenders!

I loved the way the teens swore in Grange Hill "Flippin' heck Tucker"!

[steerpike66]

Kids did actually swear like that in the 70's. I said 'flippin' and so forth.

We moderated our language, even amongst ourselves.

[givmespace]

this music is so old school, up there with dennis and tin tin titles .. . .

[linebackertwo]

Another time..another place;-)

[jemmabond]

Because of this intro, they stopped serving sausages at my school.

[ogfunk187]

I've never to this day understood what that sausage was about. Could someone explain to me what it's meant to show???

[steerpike66]

How hard can this be?

School dinners. Childish rivalry. Food fight.

Didn't you GO to school?

[ogfunk187]

it looks like it has an electric current attached to it, or a bomb inside it! hahaha

[StolenMonkey]

Its simple ! ! ! ! someone was stealing someone elses mashed potato . . . probably a badger :p

[ogfunk187]

why the electric/bomb?? haha

[StolenMonkey]

when comics want to put emphasis on something they put the word in that style of word bubble . . .words like Kapow etc from Batman . . .its just carrying on the comic theme to the intro

[kitty3309]

Why?

[jemmabond]

Because children like to copy what they see on tv, including the food fight with sausages!

[skc1uk]

Phil Redmond really has a superb TV pedigree. The man is a national hero for what he did for us.

[MimiFriday]

I agree, what a talent.

[robhingston]

coming home from school and hearing tune, long time ago but seems like yesterday

[billabongodrum]

yeah, i get it, *great, more school." it was good though... rember Gripper?

[salps3]

ahhh memories those were the days

[cakesfairy]

I think the comic was a good idea for an introduction.

[billabongodrum]

absolutely

[MusicMania01]

how gay hahah

[baggybod]

this is the best tune ever made!

[SMERGHEED]

I have got a wicked hip hop tune with the grange hill theme tune in it by Word Assocation called Return To The Playground...... you might be able to get their album for free off there website as there is no copywrite to their music....it says on the back of the album....copying of this album is highly encouraged,but steal our rhymes and we will hurt you!lol!

They are a group from cambridge and hopefully they are going to do some new material very soon......

[stareleades]

Lol ...Ok this sounds completly ridiculous

but apprently my godfather is in this

and I need to know what his character was

im too embaressed to ask my mum

but he's fat and has red hair ?

any ideas ?

[anoifcc]

sounds like trevor cleaver he was a bully and fits that description

[TheCathodeRayChoob]

If he was in it in the mid-to-late 80s, it sounds like Pogo Patterson.

[OldSchoolRasslin]

Definately sounds like Trevor Cleaver. I remember they did a storyline where they were on a school trip and he got drunk and floated out to sea on a tyre.

[crusher19860138]

Hello my little sausages!

[gingertigris]

I love that sausage! Cracks me up, man!

[doobyjim]

Total retro classic, brilliant!!!!!

[TH123456789123456789]

Dig this track. Hello Limewire!

[shaneski75]

the hill was a dope show

[freddygotme]

hah, its funny that the first ting people think off before it happens is the flying sausage on a fork!!! it must have been used right up til 86/87 because I can remember this intro. i used to do a funny walk around the room in time to the beat.

[fakegirl15]

I think it was used longer than that, I was born 1988 and still remember watching the show with this intro

x

[WhirlStyleMedia]

LMAO @ Sausage. :D

[yethboth]

Interesting.

[PeteGeeza86]

Why? What is wrong with comprehensives?

[dowling1981]

Pete - What would Max Branning have to say about all of this?

[randidno]

so glad I didn`t go to a comprehensive!

[lilmisuk]

wots wrong with comp schools? they gr8. is it cos u go grammer skl or summin?

[madderscientist23]

does anyone remember grange hill sharing the same intro theme music with early editions of 'give us a clue?' I cant find it on you tube but I swear blind it was so. I used to be disappointed when I'd hear the theme only to see it was Lionel and Una and not Tucker and Gripper :(

[Lee71England]

Absolutely. I remember being so perplexed that a children's programme on BBC and a game show on ITV had the same theme tune. Still can't understand it now!

(Just done a bit of research on the net, and it turns out the piece of music was called "Chicken Man" by Alan Hawkshaw. Who?!)

[Amandamoo73]

was it give us a clue that had the same music?

[Lee71England]

Yep. Give Us A Clue indeed. Even all these years later, it still strikes me as odd that two different programmes on two rival channels were using the same theme music. Happy memories nonetheless!

[BrisbaneBoy86]

Alan Hawkshaw - one of the most noteable and highly regarded library composers in the UK.

The reason both shows used the same piece is because this is a library track from KPM. It's not an original sig tune commissioned by the BBC.

[WIZZLES76]

grange hill ruled why do all the good programmes get axed ffs this is the greatest

[gillo69]

A follow up series would be absolutely class, Imagine it, one last shot at the greatest show ever....

As far as late 70s and 1980s nostalgia goes, you don't meet better shows along the way than good old Grange Hill......

[gillo69]

I mean like a show with all the orig cast showing them in their new lives....

Gripper could be an ex con ;)

[leef0324uk]

this is my life i lost my sister in 1980 of the heart condition

i have HYPERTROPHIC OBSTRUCTIVE CARDIOMYOPATHY betrer known as SUDDEN DEATH SYMDROME Ye its scary but the hole GRANGE HILL thing has memorys 4 me the friends, school disco's, ye im 38 now & i know if my sis was alive today we would talk about this series until our days of grey. i miss GRANGE HILL & MY SISTER . Thank you R.I.P LESLEY 4/12/1964 TO 11/8/1981 WE all LOVE & MISS YOU XXX

[Robbie2612]

I am sorry!

[drlemoncobra]

1978?!!

OMG, i am so old!

just shoot me please somebody!!

[BA0084]

lol i know what you mean!

[devilangel109]

this was shot in kingsbury high school.

i go to dat skool

[gillo69]

I love GH,

[IceManSudan]

grange hill used to do my fucking head in swear down i wud actual massacre that school lol

[steerpike66]

Floella Benjamin just released a righteous rant about the collapse of children's programming: Grange Hill was a great, intelligent program that looks silly because we IMAGINE that kids need to see nasty, grotesque programs that are supposedly adult (screaming, fu-king, sneering, screaming again) instead of programs that teach them how to deal with the values of their specific social group.

Time to establish a proper children's TV charter.

[AyanamiChaos]

i never watched any of the CBBC/CITV crap like Grange Hill and i turned out ok.

I should also point out that i spent my days playing video games, watching japanese cartoons and practicing karate.

According to todays PC views, i should be a murderous layabout how scrounges off the taxpayer; funny that - im in a mathematical engineering degree with 9 highers and a job......TV/Games don't influence people to do bad things; they only influence people who are already wrong in the head