Byker Grove

Byker Grove
Genre	Teen drama
Created by	Andrea Worfor
Developed by	BBC Zenith Entertainment
Directed by	Various
Starring	Various
Theme music composer	Kane Gang Simon Etchell
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	18
No. of episodes	344
Production
Executive producer(s)	Andrea Wonfor (1989–90) Ian Squires (1990–92) Ivan Rendall (1992–95) Matthew Robinson (1995–98)
Producer(s)	Matthew Robinson (1989–95) Helen Gregory (1995–97) Stephen McAteer (1997–99) Morag Bain (1999–01) Edward Pugh (2002–05)
Location(s)	Newcastle upon Tyne
Running time	25 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC One (1989–2006) TCC (1995–1997) Carlton Kids (1998–2000)
Picture format	4:3 (1989–2000) 16:9 (2001–2006)
Original release	8 November 1989 (1989-11-08) – 10 December 2006 (2006-12-10)
External links
Website

Byker Grove is a British television series which aired between 1989 and 2006 and was created by Adele Rose. The show was broadcast at 5.10pm after Newsround (later moved to 5pm) on CBBC on BBC One. It was aimed at an older teenager and young adult audience, tackling serious and sometimes controversial storylines.

Creation

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 the original idea of the TV executive Andrea Wonfor. In 1987, she approached soap writer Adele Rose. Together they created a single pilot episode featuring children aged 8–11 at an out-of-school club (transmitted on BBC in 1988). 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 therefore centred on young teenagers crossing the bridge from childhood to adulthood. 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.

Famous people

Byker Grove launched the careers of Anthony McPartlin ("P.J.") and Declan Donnelly ("Duncan") who are otherwise known as Ant & Dec as well as the actress Jill Halfpenny, Donna Air, former CBBC presenter Andrew Hayden-Smith and Emmerdale actors Dale Meeks, Charlie Hardwick, Chelsea Halfpenny, Laura Norton and Victoria Hawkins. Also appearing in the series was the now glamour model Francoise Boufhal ("Ellie Baines") and Charlie Hunnam, who now starred in the American TV series Sons of Anarchy and co-starred in Pacific Rim. Founder producer/director (1989–95) was Matthew Robinson who, after Byker Grove, became executive producer of EastEnders, Head of Drama BBC Wales and now runs Khmer Mekong Films in Cambodia. 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 BBC One's Life on Mars). The first writer was Adele Rose - in Series 1 she wrote episodes 1–4 and 6; her daughter, Carrie Rose, wrote episode 5. The most prolific was Brian B. Thompson, who wrote 50 episodes over 12 series. Byker Grove gave Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper his first break into TV drama when he directed four episodes in 1997.^[1]

Production

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 & 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 "youth club" building which is what the viewers see on-screen, 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). After the success of the 1st 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. The building housed the actual set, production offices, make up suite and costume department. Currently the property is semi-vacant, and the Zenith North Television signs have been removed outside the building.

The final series 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.^[2]

The eighteenth and last series of Byker Grove was produced by Tim Holloway, who also produced Casualty from 2000 until 2002.

On 11 March 2008, it was reported that Gallowgate Productions TV, the TV production company owned by Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, purchased the rights to Byker Grove after the production company that made it (Zenith Entertainment) went into liquidation in 2007. According to reports, the reason Ant & Dec decided to purchase the rights was to stop a digital channel showing repeats featuring the duo during their time in the series, though this has neither been confirmed or denied by the duo themselves.^[3]

The cast and crew from the first 10 years of the show held their first reunion on 19 May 2012 in the Quayside area of Newcastle upon Tyne and on a river boat cruise. The party guests included; Ant & Dec, Donna Air, Charlie Hardwick and Andrew Hayden-Smith. Jill Halfpenny and Si King (Hairy Biker) were absent due to work commitments.

Rival youth clubs

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. 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. In Series 16 (2004), a different youth club, Jesmond Grange (pejoratively referred to by the Grovers as "Jezzie Grange"), became a new rival to the Grove.

Grove staff

There have been several youth leaders working at the Grove over the years. The following is a list of all the ones shown on-screen.

Storylines

Byker Grove was not intended for young children, but aimed at a young adult and teenage audience as it tackled some controversial subjects such as drug addiction, child abuse, homelessness, teen pregnancy, homophobia, and abortion. In November 1994, Byker Grove became the first British drama to broach 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, a Sun editorial calling for producer Matthew Robinson to be sacked. However the BBC strongly backed the storyline which received countrywide support from gay teenagers, many teachers and parents. 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.

Byker Grove frequently confronted viewers with the repercussions of the characters' actions. 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.

The bands of Byker Grove

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

• Michelle Charles – "The Best Thing In My Life", "For the Good Times"
• PJ & Duncan — 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 – girl band starring Donna Air ('Charlie'), Jayni Hoy ('Leah') and Vicky Taylor ('Angel') whose single "Love Your Sexy" reached UK No. 47 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.)^[4] In the United States, where Byker Grove did not air and nor was the group promoted as being associated with the series, "Jellyhead" reached No. 72 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1996.^[5]
• Summer Matthews – aka Emma Miller (Single: "Little Miss Perfect")
• Point Break, boyband which included Brett Adams and David Oliver, who played Noddy and Marcus respectively. (Singles include "Freakytime" on Eternal Records.)

Other bands with links to Byker Grove include:

• Freefaller – includes member 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.

See also

• CBBC
• Grange Hill
• Children's Ward

References

External links

• Geograph Page - The Mitre, Benwell
• Byker Grove at the Internet Movie Database
• Byker Grove episode guide
• Byker Grove cast list
• Byker Grove at TV.com