| “ | We go to Grange Hill! | „ |
| ~ Michael Doyle |
| “ | Yeah, there's a few of us wish you didn't. | „ |
| ~ Michael Doyle geting a cool reception from Andrew Stanton. |
Michael Doyle is a recurring character on Grange Hill who serves as one of the main antagonists of the first four seasons, along with Madelin Tanner in Series 2 and 3, Booga Benson in Series 3 and Gripper Stebson in Series 4.
He was played by Vincent Hall.
Biography[]
Series 1[]
Doyle appeared in the final third of the season, being transferred to Mr Mitchell's class from Mr Watson's because he and his friends had a history of bullying and it was felt best to separate them. One of his first acts was to try and rig the school council elections. Having failed to get the nomination from his new form, Doyle tried to intimidate smaller boys into voting for his friend David Robinson. When his tactics came to light, his and Robinson's votes were removed from the total, making Ann Wilson the winner.
Doyle made Benny Green one of his main targets, partly because of his poor background and partly because of his skin colour, which often saw him clash with Benny's friend Tucker Jenkins. Since his father was a member of the local council and a school governor, Doyle saw himself as above his classmates. He stole a pair of antique flintlocks loaned for the school fair, nearly getting the event cancelled. This saw him at odds with the entire class, who sent him to coventry, until he take advantage of an amnesty to return them anonymously.
Series 2[]
Doyle began choosing the intellectual Justin Bennett as one of his targets. During a school trip to the countryside, Doyle led a group of boys into the woods against instructions, where he scared Penny and Susi with animal noises. This resulted in the two girls running off into the woods and being lost overnight. Doyle told the others to stay quiet but Justin broke rank and told the teachers where they'd last seen them, standing up to Doyle when he objected "I'm sick of hearing your voice so shut it before I smash your face.". At the end of the series, Doyle caused trouble at the end of year show, stealing parts of Tucker's school model and shutting them in a cupboard along with Joseph Hughes. He was quickly found out by Tucker and his friends and received a last tongue-lashing from Mr. Mitchell, who he knew was leaving at the end of term.
Series 3[]
Doyle took a racist attitude towards new form teacher Miss Peterson, at least behind her back. He finally made it onto the school council and quickly began taking advantage of the position, demanding payment from students in order to raise topics at council. Penny objected and wrote an article in the school paper criticizing him, which resulted in her being banned from contributing to the paper and having to ghost write articles with Susi's help. When Miss Peterson took Doyle to task for neglecting his duties, Doyle blamed Penny, stealing her school project and binning it. He was soon found out, resulting in him being thrown off the school council (ultimately to be replaced by Justin) and sentenced to search through the school rubbish to retrieve every page of Penny's project.
Series 4[]
After making unrealized plans to spoil Tucker's logo competition entry, Doyle settled for petty theft, stealing light bulbs from the school and selling them to a junk shop while leaving faulty ones in their place. In order to avoid a detention, he attended a judo class where he was repeatedly overpowered by the more experienced Alan. In revenge, he first attacked Alan and Susi, then stole Alan's judo kit and sold it to the junk shop. He was soon found out by Tucker and Alan and forced to beg them not to report him. He made his last appearance in that year's Christmas special where he ended up calling a Christmas truce with Tucker to stop a group of Brookdale students stealing the equipment from the school disco.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- When creator Phil Redmond returned to the show for Series 26, the new characters he introduced were clearly based on the line-up from the first series, with class bully Matthew "Mooey" Humphries being an analogue for Doyle (Mooey would later develop into a similar antagonist to Doyle's successor Gripper Stebson).
- The Harry Potter character Draco Malfoy would later have similarities to Doyle, such his antagonistic way towards other pupils and being from a privileged family, with Malfoy even resembling Doyle psychically. As JK Rowling would have been in her teens during Doyle's time in Grange Hill, the character could possibly have inspired her writing Malfoy when she started the Harry Potter franchise in the 1990s.