Corporation on the hunt for innovative Grange Hill replacements

Published Tuesday 12 February 2008 at 15:40 by Matthew Hemley

CBBC is looking for new long-running dramas following its decision to axe Grange Hill after 30 years.

Anne Gilchrist, controller of CBBC, told The Stage that there is “room for a long running show” in the schedule, but urged independent producers to be more imaginative and original when pitching dramas for the children’s strand.

She said: “My message to independent producers would be don’t give me something I’ve already got. A lot of people think ‘They are making this therefore I will give them this, but in another colour’. Actually, if we are already doing The Sarah Jane Adventures then we want something completely different the next time. Be really imaginative, think about what is really relevant to children and not just what adults think is relevant to children.”

Gilchrist said Grange Hill had been axed because the show had enjoyed a “good innings” and because the BBC felt the show should end on a high, rather than with audiences feeling bored of it.

She added: “We feel children aren’t just defined anymore as school children - their lives are quite varied and broad. We don’t want to abandon the school aspect of their lives but there are other things we can do.”

New dramas that have already been commissioned for CBBC include Half Moon Investigations, about corruption and ‘general wrong doing’ in the school playground and We Are Family, about a family of singers who are a talk show’s resident pop group.

Gilchrist said increasing competition from the film industry and programmes aimed at adults that children now watch are making it more difficult for CBBC, particularly when it comes to finding books that can be adapted into suitable series.

She said the strand had to continuously “up its game” but added: “It is much more competitive than it ever used to be. We’re competing with Hollywood and adult television that want to do those kind of family dramas. It used to be our domain but it’s not any longer, so we have to be cleverer and quicker.”

Despite a recent report from media regulator Ofcom that highlighted a decline in the amount of original programmes being made for children and a forecast from audience research consultants Attentional that total viewing of children aged between four and 15 looks set to decline by 4% over the next five years, Gilchrist said the BBC would always continue to provide dramas aimed at younger people.

She added: “We know the audience loves storytelling and we love doing it. It is a very expensive genre to fund and that’s partly why people have backed away from it. But it is really important to us here and if anything I would like to do more of it.”