Byker Grove
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| Byker Grove | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Children's Drama Soap |
| Creator(s) | Adele Rose Andrea Wonfor |
| Developer(s) | BBC Zenith Entertainment |
| Theme music composer | Kane Gang |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 18 |
| No. of episodes | 344 |
| Production | |
| Location | Newcastle upon Tyne |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC One |
| Original run | November 8, 1989 – December 10, 2006 |
| Links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Byker Grove was a British children's television series shown originally on BBC One and now on the CBBC Channel, and was created by Adele Rose.
The show ran between 1989 and 2006, and was set in a youth club in the Byker district of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Byker Grove was actually the original idea of late TV executive Andrea Wonfor. She then approached Adele Rose and the pair created the first series together. The show depicts the lives of children aged 11-16 as they grow up from childhood to adolescence. Although some of the action takes place outside the youth club, the series is unusual among children's dramas in that the characters are never shown in school. One of the major settings is the foster home run by the kindly Lou Gallagher, the longest-running character.
Byker Grove launched the careers of Ant McPartlin (character name "P.J.") and Declan Donnelly (character name "Duncan") and who are otherwise known as Ant & Dec, as well as the actress Jill Halfpenny, Donna Air and former CBBC presenter Andrew Hayden-Smith. It was also home to writers such as Catherine Johnson (who went on to pen Mamma Mia, the Abba musical) and Matthew Graham (This Life, Doctor Who and co-creator of BBC1's Life on Mars). The originating writer was Adele Rose and the most prolific was Brian B. Thompson, who wrote 50 episodes over 12 series.
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[edit] Production
Byker Grove wasn't actually filmed in the Byker area of Newcastle, as many people who aren't from Newcastle assume. The actual youth club set was in Benwell, which is in the west area of the City, Byker being in the east. The "youth club" building which is what the viewers see onscreen, known as The Mitre used to be a nightclub and a pub (which was mentioned in a few storylines from episodes in the late 90s) before it was bought by Zenith Television, who film the series. The building housed the actual set, production offices, make up suite and costume department. Now, at the end of 2006, the property is semi-vacant, the Zenith North Television signs have been removed outside the building.
The BBC announced that the show is to end after 17 years, with the last series having started on 7 October 2006 on the CBBC Channel. Richard Deverell, head of CBBC, was interviewed on Newsround about the decision to axe Byker Grove.
The eighteenth and last series of Byker Grove was produced by Tim Holloway, who also produced Casualty from 2000 - 2002. The last series was a radical departure from the usual Byker style.
[edit] Storylines
Byker Grove has tackled some controversial subjects such as drug addiction, child abuse, homelessness, teen pregnancy and abortion. In November 1994 Byker Grove became the first British children's drama to breach the subject of coming out when one boy (Noddy Fishwick) kissed his close friend (Gary Hendrix) at the back of a cinema. 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 depicts life as unjust, with bad things happening to good people. One of the most shocking episodes is when P.J. is accidentally blinded in a paintball accident. It is one of many tragedies to befall Byker Grove characters through the years. Others include Gemma being electrocuted by a faulty electricity mains socket, Flora's death from a brain tumour, Greg's fall from the roof of the Grove which left him paralysed from the waist down, youth leader Geoff Keagen's death in an accidental gas explosion, and the latest tragedy, Ben Carter being knocked down and fatally injured by a car driven by Craig on the Quayside.
[edit] Trivia
- Byker Metro station (the suburban rail network in Newcastle and the Tyne & Wear area) and other landmarks in the real Byker (such as the famous architecture that is the Byker Wall and surrounding estate) are used for filming backdrops.
- The 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. The leader of the gang was Dave Richmond, a local drug dealer from Whitley Bay, his trademark act of violence was the "Whitley Smile."
- Filming for Denwell Burn Youth Club for Series 15 was filmed at Raby Street Youth Club, in the buildings next to Byker Primary School. This is, ironically, the real youth club for the children of Byker.
- At some point, a different youth club, Jesmond Grange (pejoratively referred to by the Grovers as 'Jezzie Grange'), became a new rival to the Grove. This switch occurred but was not made obvious over the years.
[edit] The Bands Of Byker Grove
A number of Musical acts have been spun off from the series, these include:
- PJ & Duncan AKA - who became Ant & Dec for "The Cult of..." album
(singles: "Let's Get Ready To Rhumble", "Better Watch Out", "We're On The Ball")
- Byker Grooove - who evolved into the duo Crush with Jayni Hoy and Donna Air.
(singles include "Jellyhead" on Telstar Records)
- Summer Mathews - aka Emma Miller
(Single: "Miss Perfect")
- Point Break (Singles: include "Freakytime" on Eternal Records)
Other bands with links to Byker Grove include:
- Freefaller - includes member of Point Break
- The Kane Gang - writers of the original theme music, a development from the "Ooh Gary Davies on your radio" jingle for Radio 1.
