Byker Grove

The show ran between 1989 and 2006, and was set in a youth club in the Byker district of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. In 1987, Wonfor approached soap writer Adele Rose and together they created a single pilot episode featuring children aged 8–11 at an out-of-school club that had been commissioned for ITV's Dramarama. In autumn 1988, Wonfor gained the backing of Anna Home, then Head of the Children's Department at BBC Television. Home gave the go ahead for a run of a series of six 25-minute episodes to be broadcast by the BBC. The age of the main characters was raised to 12–16 after support from first producer-director, Matthew Robinson. The first series centred on young teenagers growing from childhood to adulthood.

In July 2023, Ant & Dec, who previously played characters PJ & Duncan in the series, revealed they would be producing a reboot of the programme in 2024, under the name Byker, in conjunction with production companies Mitre Studios (their own production company, named after the filming location for the programme) and Fulwell 73. Executive producers will include Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly.[1]

The Mitre, also known as Benwell Towers, acted as the production offices and the fictional youth club.

Byker Grove was not filmed in the Byker area of Newcastle. The actual youth club set was in Benwell, which is in the west area of the city, Byker being in the east. Byker Metro station (the suburban rail network in Newcastle and the Tyne and Wear area) and other landmarks in the real Byker (such as the Byker Wall and surrounding estate) were used for filming backdrops.

The youth club building seen on-screen is The Mitre, which used to be a nightclub and a pub (which was mentioned in a few storylines from episodes in the late 1990s).[2] After the success of the first series (6 episodes, 1989), The Mitre was bought by the BBC's London property department, which then granted Zenith Television a permanent licence to film the series there.

Scenes representing Denwell Burn Youth Club for Series 15 were filmed at Raby Street Youth Club, in the buildings next to Byker Primary School. This is the real youth club for the children of Byker.

On 11 May 2006, the BBC announced that the series would be ending after 17 years.[3] Filming wrapped on 24 August,[4] and the final series, moved to the CBBC Channel,[5] started on 7 October 2006. Shortly after the announcement Richard Deverell, head of CBBC, was interviewed on Newsround about the decision to axe Byker Grove.[6]

On 11 March 2008, it was reported that Gallowgate Productions, the TV production company owned by Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, purchased the rights to Byker Grove.[7]

Byker Grove was not intended for young children, but aimed at a young adult and teenage audience, as it tackled controversial subjects such as drug addiction, child abuse, homelessness, teen pregnancy, homophobia and abortion. Although some of the action took place outside the youth club, the series was unusual among dramas in that the characters were rarely shown in school. One of the major settings was the foster home run by the kindly but strict Lou Gallagher, the longest-running character. Byker Grove was included by The Guardian in a 2018 list of "definitive" shows for teenagers; Iman Amrani describes it as "the north's answer to Grange Hill", praising its "gritty" writing, which took on difficult topics such as sexual relationships (including those which were same sex) and foster care.[10]

In November 1994, Byker Grove featured the first gay kiss on UK children's television.[11] It broached the subject of "coming out" when Noddy Fishwick kissed his close friend Gary Hendrix at the back of a cinema. This scene caused outrage in the British tabloids and calls for producer Matthew Robinson to be sacked.[11] However, the BBC strongly backed the storyline, which received countrywide support from gay teenagers, many teachers, and parents.[8] The 2004 series saw the character of Bradley agonising over his sexuality and eventually coming out as gay to his girlfriend Sadie, after a romantic holiday together had failed to live up to their expectations.

The series frequently depicted life as unjust, with bad things happening to good people, such as Flora's death from a brain tumour, Greg's fall from the roof of the Grove which left him paralysed from the waist down, Jemma Dobson being electrocuted by a faulty electricity mains socket and youth leader Geoff Keegan's death in an accidental gas explosion after 11 years on the show.[8]

Byker Grove frequently confronted viewers with repercussions for the characters' actions, often permanent. These ranged from the comical to the tragic; characters who stole and joy-rode cars often died in them, starting with Gill, and ultimately Craig running over Ben Carter. P.J. was blinded during an illicit and unsupervised paintballing session, in which he ignored warnings and removed his face guard, in a scene filmed on location at Aydon Castle near Corbridge.

The central storyline of the first three series was the character of London teenager Julie Warner (Lucy Walsh) struggling to fit in and adjust to life in working class Newcastle and her relationship with the rebellious Martin "Gill" Gillespie. In the show's final episode the characters discover that they do not exist and are the creation of unseen characters known as "The Writers" who plan to conclude the show by demolishing the Grove. However numerous present and former Grove members buy enough time for the characters to re-write the ending so that the club will remain open forever, but ultimately fail to stop it being demolished.[12]

Until Series 10 (1998) the rival youth club was known as Denton Burn. In Series 13 (2001) rival youth club members were known as the Denwell Burners as they were from a youth club in Denwell Burn. This is a fictitious area of Newcastle upon Tyne, the name coming from a mixture of Benwell and Denton Burn.

A number of musical acts have been spun off from the series. These include:

• Michelle Charles (under the guise of Charley, which was her character name) – "The Best Thing", "For the Good Times"
• PJ & Duncan — who became Ant & Dec for The Cult of... album (Singles include "Let's Get Ready to Rhumble", "Better Watch Out", "We're On The Ball")
• Byker Grooove – girl band starring Donna Air ('Charlie'), Jayni Hoy ('Leah') and Vicky Taylor ('Angel') whose single "Love Your Sexy...!!" reached No. 48 on the UK Singles Chart in December 1994. Byker Grooove evolved into the duo Crush with Jayni Hoy and Donna Air. (Singles included "Jellyhead" (UK No. 50) and "Luv'd Up" (UK No. 45) on Telstar Records.)[13] In the United States, where Byker Grove did not air and nor was the Crush duo promoted as being associated with the series, "Jellyhead" reached No. 72 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1996.[14] The song "Jellyhead" also charted in Australia from early February 1997, peaking at No. 32 in early April 1997, spending 23 weeks within the ARIA Top 100 Singles chart, 13 of which were in the Top 50.
• Summer Matthews – aka Emma Miller (Single: "Little Miss Perfect")
• Point Break, boyband featuring Brett Adams ('Noddy') and David Oliver ('Marcus'). (Singles include "Do We Rock", "Stand Tough", and "Freakytime" on Eternal Records.)

Other bands connected to Byker Grove include:

• Freefaller – includes David Oliver of Point Break
• Kane Gang – writers of the original theme music, a development from the "Ooh Gary Davies on your radio" jingle for BBC Radio 1.

• CBBC
• Grange Hill
• Children's Ward

• Byker Grove at IMDb
• Byker Grove at the BFI's Screenonline
• Byker Grove episode guide Archived 7 February 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Byker Grove cast list Archived 7 February 2019 at the Wayback Machine