Watch the Grange Hill title sequence

It is a final victory for Tucker and his tearaway chums. Grange Hill will close its doors after 30 years because children now find school life too boring to watch at home.

The BBC is to axe the groundbreaking children’s series which once shocked viewers with its gritty representation of life in an inner-city comprehensive.

Phil Redmond’s programme tackled racism, drug addiction and sex, shocking parents but delighting millions of children, who rushed home to watch. Anne Gilchrist, controller of CBBC, decided that Grange Hill had failed its 30th anniversary inspection. With so many web and mobile alternatives, children no longer wanted to watch a drama series based on the mundane realities of school.

Children will instead be offered more of The Sarah Jane Adventures, a glossy spin-off from Doctor Who, and M.I. High, an action-packed adventure series from the makers of Spooks.

Redmond, who devised Grange Hill in 1978, had criticised a BBC plan to “soften” the series by introducing younger pupils and moving the setting to a multimedia technology college.

He said recently: “I do now think the point of Grange Hill has been lost, and 30 years is a nice time for it to hang up its mortar board.”

The BBC came to the same conclusion as the creator of Brookside and Hollyoaks. Ms Gilchrist told The Times: “Grange Hill has been a terrific show for 30 years, but the lives of children have changed a great deal since it began. We feel children no longer define themselves by just their school life these days.”

The final, “softened” series will be shown this summer and Ms Gilchrist promised that Grange Hill would receive a dignified closure. Old episodes could be screened on BBC Four, she said.

A report by Ofcom has warned of a steep decline in home-grown drama which reflected children’s lives. Ms Gilchrist said: “Drama is a very expensive genre and children now demand high production values. We are seeking out new and exciting ways of bringing social realism to the CBBC audience.”

She is developing a new drama from Redmond’s Lime Pictures company, written by Jeanette Winterson, author of the novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. A recent BBC children’s drama series, Summerhill, dramatised the 1999 struggle between the “no-rules” school and Ofsted inspectors.

Redmond was forced by the BBC to tone down Grange Hill, the first episode of which was broadcast on February 8, 1978, after a public outcry. Even the use of playground phrases such as “flippin ’eck” attracted complaints.

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