The BBC is reporting that, after 30 years of playground antics, Grange Hill is going off air. The primary reason cited is that it's gone out of date. Today's adults grew up with a gritty, hard-hitting TV show that they could relate to, showing the difficulties of teenage life and tackling some taboo subjects which brought these difficulties to the public eye. The consensus is that that's no longer the case.
As one commenter on the post points out, "things have changed too much in both education and society. If Grange Hill were to reflect the lives of teenagers today it would need to be shown after the water shed and not during children's prime viewing slots."
Another says, "It has to be said though, that the age group that this is aimed at would think the antics shown are very tame by today's standards and most kids aren't shocked by such things as the Zammo drugs storyline as they see it in their school as an everyday way of life and lets face it we can hardly have some of today's activities shown in an afternoon children's programme."
That makes you think, though, doesn't it? The point of the watershed would seem to be to shield younger viewers from unneccesary violence, the likes of which they wouldn't otherwise be subjected to. But if we were to make Grange Hill realistic for today's age how could we put it after the watershed? Kids see that sort of thing every day anyway; that's what realistic means.
It demonstrates one of two possibilities (and both may be true): broadcasting rules have gotten far too strict, and even the most important of hard-hitting subjects is being hidden from children out of fear; and Britain's schools are completely out of control.
