Fifteen years after Grange Hill was axed, the BBC is returning to school dramas for teen audiences with a new “Grange Hill meets The Breakfast Club” series, Phoenix Rise. Here we look at some of the best high school dramas to have gone before it.
1 Grange Hill
Such an institution is this BBC programme that across its 31 series, generation after generation grew up on its hard-hitting storylines that ranged from heroin addiction to sexual assault. It spawned Top 10 singles (Just Say No!), drew peak audiences of 12 million young viewers, and brought a gritty realism to youth programming the likes of which had never been seen before.
2 Freaks and Geeks
Judd Apatow and Paul Feig’s tale of high school outcasts was so beautifully observed and subtly plotted that it became a cult classic, and it served as an incubator for the next generation of US talent. Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jason Segel and Busy Philipps all cut their teeth in this clever, moving and frequently hilarious series.
3 The OC
This soapy tale of wealthy California teens was one of the biggest pop culture phenomena of the early 00s – and with good reason. Seth Cohen’s dry wit launched a thousand preppy jumper purchases, and it was almost impossible not to love the hyperactive, often sarcastic tone with which this show undercut the relationship dramas of its rich characters. The fact that it was all set in a sun-kissed landscape full of beautiful people and palatial homes didn’t hurt.
4 Skins
A reputation for sex, drugs and nu-rave often overshadowed the real appeal of this teen drama: a flair for well-rounded characters living out genuinely believable teen lives. A cast full of future luminaries such as Nicholas Hoult and Dev Patel gave real heft to a script that veered between tragedy and gleeful, adolescent joie de vivre – ie what it’s actually like to be a teenager.
5 Euphoria
There’s a good reason why no fewer than nine Emmys have been showered on this controversy-packed Gen Z teen drama. Partly, it’s that Zendaya’s turn as the recovering heroin addict Rue is one of the most compelling TV performances in years. But, more than that, this HBO series brings something to high school dramas that has long been missing from the genre: an unflinching, warts-and-all take on teen life that’s irresistibly watchable, no matter your age.
6 Heartstopper
When it comes to quietly revolutionary takes on high school dramas, nothing holds a candle to Alice Oseman’s tale of gay, male love in a British grammar school. It’s an utterly lovely tale of sexuality as a spectrum, and such an unrivalled insight into the emotional literacy of today’s teens that it thrums with a feeling of nowness.
7 Sex Education
It takes an uncommonly good school-based series to lure an actor of Gillian Anderson’s calibre. Viewers of this stylish series about a teenage wannabe sex therapist may have come for the salacious carnal hijinks, but they’ve stayed for a show whose impeccably acted episodes veer from laugh-out-loud funny to lump-in-the-throat moving.
