The Grange Hill actor Stuart Organ has died aged 72, his representative has confirmed. The British actor was best known for playing the firm but fair Peter Robson in the children’s TV drama, and was the longest-serving member of staff at the school. Organ “died peacefully at home after a short illness”, it was announced on Friday. As Robson, he was a PE and geography teacher who was promoted to headteacher in the series about life in a London comprehensive school. The show ran from 1978 to 2008 and made headlines for its gritty social realism, tackling issues such as racism, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, mental illness and HIV and Aids. His agent, Creative Artists Management, said: “Stuart was a magnificent actor with a wonderful career on stage and screen. Best known for playing Mr Robson in Grange Hill, he was a true gentleman and a delight to work with and will be much missed.” Organ also portrayed Kevin Cross in the TV soap Brookside and featured in other shows including Doctor Who, where he appeared alongside Sylvester McCoy. His career also included appearances in the medical dramas Casualty and Holby City and a number of films including Those Glory Glory Days, the festive film Present Spirits, and Fork in the Road. Organ started his professional career at Leeds Playhouse in 1975 in a performance of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, a spin-off of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and would also tread the boards as Judge Turpin in Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch’s Sweeney Todd. Grange Hill made household names of characters such as Zammo McGuire, played by Lee MacDonald, and Tucker Jenkins, played by Todd Carty.