The Grimleys

7.7

1999•30m

The Grimleys is a nostalgic comedy-drama television series set on a council estate in Dudley, West Midlands, England in the mid-1970s. It was first broadcast by Granada TV for ITV in 1999, following a pilot in 1997, and concluded in 2001 after three series. The show was written by Jed Mercurio, who had trained as a doctor and whose first series, Cardiac Arrest - written under the pseudonym 'John MacUre' - had attracted critical plaudits for its dark portrayal of life in a disintegrating British National Health Service. The filming of the school took place in Salford, Buile Hill High, Hope High and Pendleton College, although the filming of the characters' homes actually took place some 80 miles away in the Dudley area itself; around Parkes Hall Road on the Dudley-Sedgley border.

Seasons

6 Episodes • Premiered 1999

1. Romeo & Juliet

When Miss Titley puts on a production of Romeo And Juliet, young Gordon is first to volunteer for the part of the male lead.

2. The Road Not Taken

Geraldine invites a former pupil to give a careers talk, which makes Doug insanely jealous, while Baz thinks it's about time Gordon stopped filling his head with dreams of university and got a proper job.

3. The Golden Whistle

Doug puffs his chest out for the highlight of PE teachers' year, The Golden Whistle Awards. He is a bit too grand to take Geraldine and instead takes the Amazonian PE mistress, Miss Thing.

4. Something For The Weekend

Gordon tries every trick in the book to stop leering love rival Doug Digby from whisking winsome Geraldine off for a dirty weekend.

5. Fung Fu Fighting

Doug Digby may think he's a hard man, but he's a softie compared with his dad. Digby senior drops in on his son, spit-roasts his pet piglet for bacon sarnies and leaves Doug a quivering mess.

6. Survival Of The Fittest

Lovelorn Gordon tries to convince Miss Titley that Digby is nothing but a brute, but she will have none of it until the grudge match against a team led by his arch-rival Ron Atkinson.