I don't think he was evil. There were signs of good-nature beneath his abrasive exterior.
As a long term fan from 1978 to 1993, Bronson isn't evil in the way Mr Hicks, the nasty games teacher who bullied and hit pupils constantly, was. Like the less well remembered Mr " This never happened when this school was a grammar" Keating from the early series, Bronson is out of time. To him, being a teacher in an era where grammar schools, strict discipline and rote learning have been abolished, he felt cast adrift and wanted to turn the clock back. Bronson wasn't evil, sure he had it in for Danny Kendall and Ant Jones, just old fashioned and a bit OTT. Also in the end we see him mellow, find love and take in a homeless lodger.
Remember the likeable craft teacher, Mr Hopwood? Well I have some interesting facts about him.He moved to Milton Keynes in 1983, apparently to a better position, but the main reason was he murdered Miss Mooney and Mr Sutcliffe the previous year as Miss Mooney refused to sleep with him. Then in Milton Keynes he was passed over for the deputy head's job, so murdered the headmaster and then changed his name to Richard Hillman in the nineties and became an insurance salesman in Manchester. He was exposed for five murders and died in a car chase in 2003, but the Metropolitan and Buckinghamshire Police have revealed he commited another three murders under his real name.:D
Just watching the first 4 series on DVD and I live watching tucker and co on it, wish they would release more so I can see Roland and Susan Tully on them.
So do I. There was some people complaining about some of the picture quality on the first few series DVD's but they were jsut over reacting imo as there were just a few scenes where the picture quality had something wrong with it and that was no doubt because fo how long ago the series was made and the tapes might have detoriated over time.
The issue with the DVD releases was that the studio scenes that had originally been on videotape had been filmised for no apparent reason, with the images effectively deinterlaced, losing the smoothness of the video look, and giving more of a rough appearance with jerkier motion. Not sure if it was ever established whether this had happened by accident or otherwise.
I think the best series was Series 6, where Gripper becomes totally evil and finally meets his match and gets expelled. However, the first six series are all good as it goes from the Tucker Jenkins era to the Stewpot Stewart era and we see the cast go through their schooling. Series 7 was a bit slow, no Gripper and no real defining moments, but 8 and 9 where Grange Hill merges with the two local schools, Bronson appears and Zammo becomes a junkie are exellent.
Loved the early GH and Tuckers Luck would love to see that again.
I remember in the last episode it ended with a cameo from Trisha Yates,a lot of series have used that fan pleaser move since then.
I didn't think the DVDs were promoted well and the episodes had also been given a "filmic" look to them which I didn't understand. All indoor scenes were shot on videotape so why try to change their appearance for the DVDs?
Might have been an ill-advised attempt to "improve" the appearance. (Which generally doesn't work; I've noticed they sometimes do that with old interlaced analogue footage in documentaries to make it match the appearance of the modern material. IMHO it just makes it look "muzzy", indistinct and lifeless; the worst of both worlds).
Or it might have been to do with fitting the material onto DVD; apparently film compresses better than interlaced video for technical reasons I won't bore you with here. Not convinced that it would work in this case though.
Loved the early GH and Tuckers Luck would love to see that again.
I remember in the last episode it ended with a cameo from Trisha Yates,a lot of series have used that fan pleaser move since then.
All episodes of Tuckers Luck are on youtube as well.
As a long term fan from 1978 to 1993, Bronson isn't evil in the way Mr Hicks, the nasty games teacher who bullied and hit pupils constantly, was. Like the less well remembered Mr " This never happened when this school was a grammar" Keating from the early series, Bronson is out of time. To him, being a teacher in an era where grammar schools, strict discipline and rote learning have been abolished, he felt cast adrift and wanted to turn the clock back. Bronson wasn't evil, sure he had it in for Danny Kendall and Ant Jones, just old fashioned and a bit OTT.
He was still scary though. :-)
Did you know that Michael Sheard (the actor who played Bronson) also played Hitler several times, including in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?
As much as I loved Grange Hill, I used to think all secondary schools were just as frightening, and used to think the likes of Mr 'Bullet' Baxter and Mr Bronson were in every school
I remember they had a borderline-psychotic character in the mid-80s called Imelda something (looks it up... Imelda Davis) who shoved fibreglass insulation down Ziggy Jones' shirt resulting in him writhing in pain.
I didn't like this at the time, as it would have been a year or so before I was due to go to secondary school.
I remember they had a borderline-psychotic character in the mid-80s called Imelda something (looks it up... Imelda Davis) who shoved fibreglass insulation down Ziggy Jones' shirt resulting in him writhing in pain.
I didn't like this at the time, as it would have been a year or so before I was due to go to secondary school.
Same! I was terrified. My favourite era was Ro-land, Zammo etc. was a must watch in my house.
The issue with the DVD releases was that the studio scenes that had originally been on videotape had been filmised for no apparent reason, with the images effectively deinterlaced, losing the smoothness of the video look, and giving more of a rough appearance with jerkier motion. Not sure if it was ever established whether this had happened by accident or otherwise.
I emailed the BBC at the time and got a rather curt "the episodes are as per the archive masters" type of response. Even putting the interlace matter aside, that was wrong as there were music cuts to a couple of episodes.
The copyright roller on the DVD was also filmised and thus the best guess was that the filmising was some idiot leaving some "film/25fps" button pressed when transferring or encoding the episodes for DVD.
In any case, that wouldn't have been the main reason for the supposed lack of sales - I just don't think people were that interested. At any rate, not against the BBCs criteria for measuring such things. Perhaps at a company like Network, the expectations may have been more reasonable.
Yes he was the most famous of the adult cast, as most of the actors who played teachers in the Hill were rarely seen in anything else. Sheard is also well known as Herr Grunwald from the first series of Auf Wiedersehen Pet.
Of the adult cast who went to do other things, Sean Arnold who played Mr Lllewelyn appeared in Bergerac for several years, Brian Capron became Richard Hillman in C St, and Paul Jerricho who played the evil games teacher got a bit of wooden spoon award by appearing in Triangle.
Don't forget 'George A. Cooper' who played the legendary Mr Griffiths. He has appeared in many other TV shows and Films as well.
He was in an episode of Some Mothers Do Ave Em. Mr Griffiths was quality, sort of reminded me of the caretaker in Please Sir.
Also going way back Alex Kingston appeared as the school bully and wannabe judo player Gill Harcourt, who hassles Judy Preston until she loses to her at judo.
'Ro-land! Ro-land! I on-ly want to help you, Ro-land!'
'Oi, you-the fifth year who called me 'fatty' & took my dinner money. You can do it again if you get rid of her or call the National Front!'
Gripper also had some amusing one-liners. For example, to a Sikh guy he was bullying: "Bring me 50p tomorrow, or it won't just be your head that's in bandages."
It got boring when it moved to liverpool as people have pointed out the cast were rip offs from the first few series, I like Tanya but the whole I don't want to wear that size of skirt for PE when her school skirt was the same size was just dumb
I emailed the BBC at the time and got a rather curt "the episodes are as per the archive masters" type of response. Even putting the interlace matter aside, that was wrong as there were music cuts to a couple of episodes.
The copyright roller on the DVD was also filmised and thus the best guess was that the filmising was some idiot leaving some "film/25fps" button pressed when transferring or encoding the episodes for DVD.
In any case, that wouldn't have been the main reason for the supposed lack of sales - I just don't think people were that interested. At any rate, not against the BBCs criteria for measuring such things. Perhaps at a company like Network, the expectations may have been more reasonable.
There was something on another thread about Kids TV shows - might have been about "Rentaghost" where a poster alleged that an archivist at the BBC wiped loads of videotape episodes of childrens programmes from the '80's in order to sell the blank tape overseas.
Apparantly this was without any authority to do so.
Might explain why so many kids TV series seem to have vanished
Comments
I don't think he was evil. There were signs of good-nature beneath his abrasive exterior.
As a long term fan from 1978 to 1993, Bronson isn't evil in the way Mr Hicks, the nasty games teacher who bullied and hit pupils constantly, was. Like the less well remembered Mr " This never happened when this school was a grammar" Keating from the early series, Bronson is out of time. To him, being a teacher in an era where grammar schools, strict discipline and rote learning have been abolished, he felt cast adrift and wanted to turn the clock back. Bronson wasn't evil, sure he had it in for Danny Kendall and Ant Jones, just old fashioned and a bit OTT. Also in the end we see him mellow, find love and take in a homeless lodger.
So do I. There was some people complaining about some of the picture quality on the first few series DVD's but they were jsut over reacting imo as there were just a few scenes where the picture quality had something wrong with it and that was no doubt because fo how long ago the series was made and the tapes might have detoriated over time.
The 'babes of the 1980s' - Jackie Wright v. Spuggie!
I remember in the last episode it ended with a cameo from Trisha Yates,a lot of series have used that fan pleaser move since then.
Might have been an ill-advised attempt to "improve" the appearance. (Which generally doesn't work; I've noticed they sometimes do that with old interlaced analogue footage in documentaries to make it match the appearance of the modern material. IMHO it just makes it look "muzzy", indistinct and lifeless; the worst of both worlds).
Or it might have been to do with fitting the material onto DVD; apparently film compresses better than interlaced video for technical reasons I won't bore you with here. Not convinced that it would work in this case though.
All episodes of Tuckers Luck are on youtube as well.
He was still scary though. :-)
Did you know that Michael Sheard (the actor who played Bronson) also played Hitler several times, including in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?
Remember that "Bronson" film they made a few years back? I keep thinking they should have done it this way instead.
He played Hitler in a Tomorrow People story from the 70s.
I remember they had a borderline-psychotic character in the mid-80s called Imelda something (looks it up... Imelda Davis) who shoved fibreglass insulation down Ziggy Jones' shirt resulting in him writhing in pain.
I didn't like this at the time, as it would have been a year or so before I was due to go to secondary school.
Same! I was terrified. My favourite era was Ro-land, Zammo etc. was a must watch in my house.
'Ro-land! Ro-land! I on-ly want to help you, Ro-land!'
'Oi, you-the fifth year who called me 'fatty' & took my dinner money. You can do it again if you get rid of her or call the National Front!'
I emailed the BBC at the time and got a rather curt "the episodes are as per the archive masters" type of response. Even putting the interlace matter aside, that was wrong as there were music cuts to a couple of episodes.
The copyright roller on the DVD was also filmised and thus the best guess was that the filmising was some idiot leaving some "film/25fps" button pressed when transferring or encoding the episodes for DVD.
In any case, that wouldn't have been the main reason for the supposed lack of sales - I just don't think people were that interested. At any rate, not against the BBCs criteria for measuring such things. Perhaps at a company like Network, the expectations may have been more reasonable.
Yes he was the most famous of the adult cast, as most of the actors who played teachers in the Hill were rarely seen in anything else. Sheard is also well known as Herr Grunwald from the first series of Auf Wiedersehen Pet.
Of the adult cast who went to do other things, Sean Arnold who played Mr Lllewelyn appeared in Bergerac for several years, Brian Capron became Richard Hillman in C St, and Paul Jerricho who played the evil games teacher got a bit of wooden spoon award by appearing in Triangle.
He was in an episode of Some Mothers Do Ave Em. Mr Griffiths was quality, sort of reminded me of the caretaker in Please Sir.
Also going way back Alex Kingston appeared as the school bully and wannabe judo player Gill Harcourt, who hassles Judy Preston until she loses to her at judo.
Gripper also had some amusing one-liners. For example, to a Sikh guy he was bullying: "Bring me 50p tomorrow, or it won't just be your head that's in bandages."
What year saw Mauler and his gang running round the school dressed in American Football gear? That marked the end of the good stuff for me.
As bullies, they weren't fit to lace Gripper's shoes.
Jackie Wright and Justine Dean were my faves. Always had a thing for Imelda too back in my school days ! Yummy !
There was something on another thread about Kids TV shows - might have been about "Rentaghost" where a poster alleged that an archivist at the BBC wiped loads of videotape episodes of childrens programmes from the '80's in order to sell the blank tape overseas.
Apparantly this was without any authority to do so.
Might explain why so many kids TV series seem to have vanished