Byker Grove: Ant and Dec to produce children's drama reboot

TV series Byker Grove is to make a comeback - produced by former stars Ant and Dec.

The children's series - set in Newcastle - aired on the BBC from 1989 to 2006 and focused on the lives of youngsters who attended the youth club of the same name.

It saw Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly find fame as PJ and Duncan.

The pair, who will be executive producers on the reboot, said they were "beyond excited".

The programme - to be simply called Byker - will be aimed "at a primetime audience" and "engage with a new generation of teenagers navigating the different challenges faced by young adults today", production company Fulwell 73 said.

It has not been announced if the show - which also launched the careers of Donna Air, Jill Halfpenny, Andrew Hayden-Smith and Charlie Hunnam - will be broadcast on the BBC or when filming will begin.

Donnelly said it would "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".

"Byker Grove will always be very special to us as the show which gave us our break, so we are beyond excited," he added.

"We are looking forward to bringing this fresh incarnation to a whole new generation as well as those who remember it as fondly as we do."

The original filming location of the youth club was Grade II-listed Benwell Towers in Newcastle, which is now home to Islamic school Bahr Academy.

McPartlin - whose character PJ famously was accidentally blinded during a paintball fight in one episode - added the pair "owe such a lot to Byker Grove and the North East so we can't wait to start working to bring this iconic series back to life".

"Already talking characters and storylines has us all buzzing at the possibilities ahead," he added.

The series will be made by North East-based Fulwell 73 - which was behind Friends: The Reunion, The Kardashians and Gavin and Stacey: Christmas Special - along with Ant and Dec's Mitre Studios, which produced Saturday Night Takeaway.

It will be filmed across Newcastle and Sunderland as part of both companies' commitment to their home region and local production offices.

Leo Pearlman, from Fulwell 73, told BBC Radio 5 Live the intention was to recruit "as much as possible" from the North East for roles on and off-screen.

"The whole creative industry is so much stronger when it is geographically diverse, culturally, socially diverse and I think the North East has been left behind in that regard for a number of years," he said.

"Alongside our plans we are building this enormous studio - Crown Works studios - and this is a big part of that overall plan, to create content that is developed, that is written, that is starring talent and voices from the region and give a voice back to a region that I think has been lost."

He also hinted its familiar theme tune - written by North East group The Kane Gang - "could do with a little update".

McPartlin and Donnelly will also integrate their Prince's Trust Making It In Media course into the production to help give experience to local young people.

Saturday Night Takeaway was just one of a number of shows fronted by the pair, including Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! and Britain's Got Talent.

The pair - who have won the National Television Awards best TV presenter category every year since 2001 - moved into primetime after working on children's TV shows such as the Ant and Dec Show and SM:TV Live, prompted by their appearances on Byker Grove.

As part of one storyline on the drama their alter egos PJ and Duncan performed a song, which led them in real life into the world of music.

They recorded two albums in their characters' names and over four years had 14 Top 20 hits, with the most famous - Let's Get Ready to Rhumble - nominated for a Brit Award.

The final episode of Byker Grove in 2006 saw the characters realising they were actors in a TV show, before a T-Rex showed up, ate some mummies and was then shot by a spaceship.

It concluded with all the characters - and the Byker Grove building - seemingly being blown up by explosives.

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