Byker Grove, the Newcastle teen drama that launched Ant and Dec on the road to fame, is returning to screens 17 years after it was last broadcast.
The pair of primetime mainstays took to the Twitter of their own Mitre Studios to announce that the show will return under the name Byker, in association with Mammals and Busby producers Fulwell73, with filming once again taking place around the North East – the show could even benefit from the use of Fulwell73’s planned £450m Wearside studios should they get the go ahead.
Let’s get ready to r̶h̶u̶m̶b̶l̶e̶ make a tv show… #Byker @Fulwell73 pic.twitter.com/hCXA6D11PU
— Mitre Studios (@mitrestudios) July 4, 2023
The pair added that the reboot will provide sustainable training, including a North East-focused writers’ room, and work placements “in front of and behind” the cameras. McPartlin and Donnelly will also integrate their Prince’s Trust Making It In Media course into the production to give experience to young people in the North East.
Byker Grove originally aired from 1989 to 2006 on CBBC, and was centred around a youth club in Newcastle. The show was known for covering subjects deemed controversial at the time such as addiction, abortion and child abuse, and in 1994 showed the first gay kiss on kids’ TV in the UK.
McPartlin and Donnelly starred as two of the show’s main characters, PJ and Duncan, and even launched a brief but strangely memorable pop career in character in the nineties. Alas, the pair strongly hint that PJ and Duncan will not be joining the “new generation” in the reboot, although they do concede that “storyline development is at a very early stage,” so you never know.
The show also helped launch the careers of Donna Air and Jill Halfpenny.
