Ant and Dec tease PJ and Duncan cameo as they announce Byker Grove reboot

Jul 04, 2023 at 12:24 PM
Ant and Dec tease PJ and Duncan cameo as they announce Byker Grove reboot

Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly have introduced that they are going to be producing a reboot of the teenager drama which made them well-known – Byker Grove.

The presenting duo shared a video on Twitter, telling followers that they had “exciting news” and that 17 years after the present got here off air, they might be rebooting the nineties TV traditional “for a whole new audience”.

Members of the Byker Grove cast old and new get together today 03 11 98 to celebrate the 10th series which has been launching pad for the likes of Ant and Dec - Image ID: B4WBYW (RM)
Image:
The Byker Grove solid celebrating their 10-year anniversary in 1998

McPartlin and Donnelly – who famously performed PJ and Duncan within the authentic sequence – will likely be govt producers and inventive consultants on the reboot, which will likely be known as merely Byker.

Like the unique present, Byker will likely be filmed and produced in and round Newcastle and the North East, and the duo can even combine their Prince’s Trust Making It In Media course into the manufacturing.

The presenters stated they “owe a lot” to “the very special show… which gave us our breaks,” including “as proud Geordies, we’re looking forward to help shine a spotlight on the North East and the talent the region has to offer both in front of the camera and behind it”.

They stated they might be bringing a “fresh incarnation to a whole new generation”, and that the drama would observe a brand new group of younger folks and their households “as they try to navigate the challenges they face today in the 2020s”.

Ant and Dec went on to say they have been “buzzing” after speaking about characters and storylines, joking about what PJ and Duncan may very well be doing proper now (PJ is acting at Wembley Stadium along with his platinum promoting rap album apparently).

Teasing the opportunity of a cameo, when PJ and Duncan might “pop into The Grove”, they appeared to counsel it was unlikely, including: “I wouldn’t have thought so.”

Byker is in improvement with Fulwell 73 – which has beforehand produced reveals together with Friends: The Reunion, The Kardashians, Bros: After The Screaming Stops – and in addition with Mitre Studios who produce Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.

Byker Grove , which was created by Coronation Street author Adele Rose, and Andrea Wonfor – who commissioned reveals together with The Word, Eurotrash, and The Big Breakfast – first aired on ITV on 8 November, 1989.

While fashionable with the younger folks it was created for, some dad and mom criticised the present for tackling some extra severe and controversial storylines, beforehand prevented in kids’s TV.

Several characters died in automobile accidents on the present, and McPartlin’s character PJ was blinded throughout a paintballing session gone unsuitable.

Byker Grove additionally famously confirmed the primary homosexual kiss on kids’s TV in 1994 – the identical yr as Channel 4 cleaning soap Brookside had their very own same-sex kiss – attracting a number of complaints from viewers and a good quantity of damaging press on the time.

A staple of British tv all through the Nineties and Noughties, it ran for 18 sequence, lastly ending in 2006.

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As nicely as giving Ant and Dec their begin in TV, Byker Grove additionally launched the careers of Donna Air, Jill Halfpenny and Andrew Hayden-Smith.

A launch date has but to be introduced for Byker, which can air on the BBC.