Brookie and Grange Hill head back to suburbia central

It's 21 years since Phil Redmond set up the soap factory Mersey Television. He tells Louise Jury why he's now bringing 'Brookside' and 'Grange Hill' back to their roots

While virtually everybody else believes that the centre of the media universe is in London, probably in Soho, possibly even specifically at the Groucho Club, Phil Redmond knows otherwise. The creator of the children's drama Grange Hill and the Merseyside soap Brookside has lived and worked in Liverpool throughout his career, bar four years when he was spending so much time in the capital working on Tucker Jenkins and co that he decamped down south temporarily.

But when he left the BBC in 1981, he returned home and set up his own company. It is called Mersey Television, of course. "This place has a traditional role as a pool of creative talent. Whether it's music, sport or film, Liverpool has always been right up there on the list," he says.

Brookside and Hollyoaks have been made in the city since creation and now, on Mersey Television's 21st birthday, Grange Hill, too, is leaving its London studios and going north. "Production is going from the periphery (London) to the centre of the universe (Liverpool), so it's bound to be better," Redmond says, with a slight twinkle but a deadly seriousness.

He long ago gave up getting angry about the London-centric television world, but he is aware that his love of Merseyside may be seen as eccentric by media luvvies. Most, no doubt, have no idea of the scale of his production operation. "There are 500 people working here. We do more than 350 episodes of Hollyoaks and Brookside a year. We have the equivalent of 12 feature films in permanent continuous production," he says.

The decision to reclaim Grange Hill came about through a chance conversation with Nigel Pickard, the BBC's head of children's television, at the television Baftas, where the series picked up a 25th anniversary achievement award. "I was probably feeling emotional and nostalgic, and I said I'd like to have a go at it again," he recalls.

The benefits were two-fold: the 20-episodes-a-year series could be given an injection of new energy, while passing it to Mersey Television would also help the BBC to meet targets on using independent producers. The pre-production work is now well under way, and filming begins in the city in the next month or so.

Most of the main cast will be kept, and the London accents will stay because it has always been set in a London comprehensive. But it will become a more anonymous location, with no distinctive red London buses or Tubes. And the aim is to target it at a slightly younger audience of eight-to-14-year-olds again. "Over the years, the issues it started to offer – drugs, sex, rock'n'roll – all these things are kicking in for kids at 14-plus. Although it had done a great job in holding its own and handling these issues, it was time to look at the next 25 years and go back to the mayhem and mischief," Redmond says.

Speaking just after the Broadcasting Standards Commission reported public concern about recent storylines involving sex, drugs and violence in EastEnders and Coronation Street, Redmond was pleased to see that his series Brookside escaped censure. "I thought about drafting a press release giving a cautionary welcome to the BSC's seal of approval for Brookside," he laughs. Yet he also stresses that Brookside's audiences expect it to be tougher than other soaps. "The research shows that viewers form a kind of contract when they're watching a soap. If you look at the new Ofcom, it notes that the remit of Channel 4 is different and people have different expectations. Our audience expects us to go a little bit further."

However, even Redmond thinks Brookside may have gone too far with some storylines in recent years. He admits it has been ailing, but straightforwardly blames Channel 4 for its fortunes. "The previous regime [under the previous chief executive Michael Jackson] didn't quite have a clear view of what they should be doing in terms of drama. There was a feeling that we weren't chiming together," he says. At one point, for instance, Channel 4 presented him with "evidence" that suburbia – where Brookside is most definitely set – was dead. He snorts with derision. "Eighty-seven per cent of the population lives in suburbia," he says.

A production company can only make a programme to the best of its ability and try to supply what the broadcaster wants, he says. "But the broadcaster has to promote and schedule it properly. I got very irritated with the way the channel kept moving the programme around. With a soap, people don't watch every single episode; they just want to think, '8pm, Brookie,' so the amount of frustration from the audience about it was enormous. But after early chats with the new regime, I think things are going to be a lot easier in future."

With the 20th anniversary approaching this November, he is determined to return the series to the campaigning agenda it was known for in the early days. "We're going back to a content agenda. NHS and child care – these are the things that engage and worry people in society now. The shorthand explanation is I'm giving up the lesbian-affair-with-the-mother-in-law syndrome. We've been there, done that and patented the T-shirt."

The challenge over the next year or so, Redmond says, is "to go into areas that will make people uncomfortable every now and again", and he is confident that he can take the audiences with him if that is done properly. "You can make television as inane as you want to make it entertain people," he says, "but you can also do great things with it; you can challenge and contribute to great debates. There's been too much titillation over the last three or four years."

Mersey Television's three shows span the ages: Grange Hill for eight- to 14-year-olds, Hollyoaks, which is the most-watched show by 16-to-24-year-olds, and Brookside for the 24-pluses.

Redmond admits he would be keen to work on other new projects, but he is realistic. The Grange Hill commission from the BBC alone is bigger than most independent production companies have on their slate, he says. And commissioning editors like to find new talent, not go back to the old hands.

As a man whose shows have nurtured a host of talents, including the core of today's current soap stars, and Anthony Minghella, who edited scripts for Grange Hill before becoming a film director, Redmond understands that. "It gives me a buzz when I see the names going up all over the place that we gave breaks to – people like Jimmy McGovern, Sue Johnston, Amanda Burton, Ricky Tomlinson."

So rather than yearning after the new, the 52-year-old Phil Redmond seems content to be in a position where he can come up with an idea for one of his shows one day, and have it on screen within six weeks. "I've worked hard to be here and it's a great position to be in," he says. "I don't lose sight of what a privilege it is."