Meet Norman Stebson - a bullying thief with a disdain for homework and a penchant for racism. Stebson is hardly the most appropriate role model for a Prime Minister, but Davd Cameron admits that Stebson was his role model. In this feature length film, we follow Stebson through his years at Grange Hill comprehensive school 'Gripper' Stebson was educated during the early 1980's at a fictional comprehensive school in London. Whilst David Cameron was educated at Eton public school, he admits that his favourite character on the popular children's television show Grange Hill was the sinister Gripper Stebson. While he could have plumped for Tucker Jenkins, the nation's favourite errant schoolboy since Billy Bunter broke into the tuck shop, the Prime Minister preferred to be a little more extreme when he joked that not only was he a fan of show but: "Indeed Gripper Stebson was one of my role models in life". As young master Stebson, of form H1, graduated from casual bullying and blackmail to hardcore racism, this may yet prove an interesting point of discussion. Mr Cameron made the claim as he promoted his "Big Society" initiative at Liverpool Hope University alongside the creator of Grange Hill Phil Redmond. The exploits of the pupils and staff of the working-class comprehensive was clearly popular among the pupils of Eton, the private boarding school where Mr Cameron was educated. He and Gripper Stebson, however, took radically different career paths. While Mr Cameron successfully completed his A levels, won a place at Oxford University and graduated with a First, Stebson was finally expelled from the fictional London comprehensive after inciting a race riot by forcing white pupils to "swear allegiance to the British people". He was last seen working as a butcher's boy. Mark Savage, who played Gripper, is still an actor, has starred in a Morrissey video and has had roles in short films. Norman "Gripper" Stebson was not without his abilities. Unfortunately, he was ahead of his time in his passion for Space Invaders. Today, pupils with the manual dexterity Stebson displayed could make a career out of playing games professionally in tournaments, but in 1981 Stebson had no such opportunity and had to bully pupils out of their lunch money to feed his arcade habit. If there are parallels to be drawn between Mr Cameron and Gripper Stebson it is in their views on man management. Gripper realised that extorting money from an entire school was more than a one-man job and so enlisted the support of Denny Rees as his accomplice. Mr Cameron has Nick Clegg. In the children's show, which ran on BBC 1, Gripper moved from tormenting Roland, a portly pupil with glasses, to inciting racism. Fortunately for the school, the black and Asian pupils united to fight back against him, but just as they were about to administer their own brand of punishment, a teacher stepped in and Gripper was expelled.

• published: 12 Oct 2014
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