19 January 2024 , 07:00
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Elizabeth II was such a huge fan of kids’ TV classic Grange Hill she once put on a 10-minute routine doing impressions of its characters.
Broadcaster and writer Gyles Brandreth revealed that “not many years before her death” the late Queen entertained dinner guests at Windsor Castle with an impromptu performance “with the accents, as a complete set piece”. The monarch was 51 when the BBC series, set in a comprehensive school and with an iconic comic book-style opening sequence, debuted in 1978. It was taken off air 30 years later, having become one of TV’s longest-running shows.
Todd Carty and Terry Sue-Patt in Grange Hill (bbc grab)Viewers were captivated by Grange Hill’s gritty drama and its stars became household names. Some – such as Todd Carty, who played Tucker Jenkins, and Susan Tully, who played Suzanne Ross – went on to land roles in EastEnders.
Gyles, 75, revealed the Queen’s unlikely love of the show while speaking to comedian and impressionist Rob Brydon, who confided that he used to watch it. Gyles said: “It wasn’t just you who was enjoying Grange Hill. While you were watching, Elizabeth II was watching, too.” Brydon, 58, was a guest on the former Conservative MP’s podcast, Rosebud, when he told him he discovered the Queen’s interest in Grange Hill while researching his 2022 biography Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait.
Gyles Brandreth with King Charles (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)Gyles said: “One of the people who was an admirer of yours was the late Elizabeth II. I wrote a biography recently of the Queen and she was very much into impressionists, and she loved impressions. And I was told only recently by proper friends of the Queen that they were – not many years before her death – at a dinner at Windsor Castle with the Queen, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, and just two other people. And Grange Hill came up. And the Queen did a routine – a routine – lasting 10 minutes on Grange Hill.”
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Gyles added: “She played all the characters, with the accents, as a complete set piece. Isn’t that extraordinary?”