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Byker Grove
Also known as	Byker
Genre	Teen drama
Created by	Adele Rose Andrea Wonfor
Directed by	Various
Starring	Various
Theme music composer	Kane Gang Simon Etchell
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	18
No. of episodes	344
Production
Executive producers	Andrea Wonfor (1989–1990) Ian Squires (1990–1992) Ivan Rendall (1992–1995) Matthew Robinson (1995–1997)
Producers	Matthew Robinson (1989–1995) Helen Gregory (1995–1997) Stephen McAteer (1997–1999) Morag Bain (1999–2001) Edward Pugh (2002–2005) Tim Holloway (2006)
Production location	Newcastle upon Tyne
Running time	25 minutes
Production company	Zenith Entertainment (1989–2006)
Original release
Network	BBC One (1989–2005) CBBC (2006)
Release	8 November 1989 (1989-11-08) – 10 December 2006 (2006-12-10)

Byker Grove is a Britishteen drama andcoming of age television series which aired between 1989 and 2006 onBBC One and laterCBBC.

The show was set inByker,Newcastle upon Tyne and was filmed in nearbyBenwell. It was created by writerAdele Rose and executive producerAndrea Wonfor. The show was broadcast at 5:10 pm afterNewsround (later moved to 5 pm). It was aimed at an older teenager and young adult audience, tackling serious and sometimes controversial storylines. The show is notable for depicting the first gay kiss on children's television, as well as its breach of thefourth wall in the final series.

The show ran for 18 series between 1989 and 2006, and was set in ayouth club in theByker district ofNewcastle upon Tyne, England.^[1] 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. In autumn 1988, Wonfor gained the backing ofAnna 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.

On 11 March 2008, it was reported that Gallowgate Productions, the TV production company owned by Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, purchased the rights toByker Grove.^[2] In July 2023,Ant & Dec, who previously played charactersPJ & Duncan in the series, revealed they would be producing a reboot of the programme in 2024, under the nameByker, in conjunction with production companies Mitre Studios (their own production company, named after the filming location for the programme) andFulwell 73. Executive producers will includeAnt McPartlin andDeclan Donnelly.^[3]

Byker Grove was not filmed in the Byker area of Newcastle. The actual youth club set was inBenwell, 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 theByker Wall and surrounding estate) were used for filming backdrops.

The youth club building seen on-screen isThe Mitre, which used to be a nightclub and a pub (which was mentioned in a few storylines from episodes in the late 1990s).^[4] After the success of the first series (6 episodes, 1989), The Mitre was bought by the BBC's London property department, which then grantedZenith Television a permanent licence to film the series there.

Scenes representing Denton 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 as part of a broader strategy for CBBC to focus more tightly on the primary school age-group as its core audience.^[5] Shortly after the announcementRichard Deverell, head of CBBC, was interviewed onNewsround about the decision to axeByker Grove.^[6] Filming wrapped on 24 August,^[7] and the final series, moved to theCBBC Channel,^[8] started on 7 October 2006.^{[citation needed]}

In July 2025,STV Player andITVX signed a co-exclusivity deal with Ant and Dec’s production company Mitre Studios to become the first streaming services to provide every episode.^[9] At the time of announcement, the first five series were available to stream on STV Player, with the remaining series available on both services later in the year.^[10] The entire series became available on ITVX on 16 November 2025.

Byker Grove launched the careers ofAnthony McPartlin ("P.J.") andDeclan Donnelly ("Duncan"), who are otherwise known asAnt & Dec, as well as the actressJill Halfpenny,^[11]Donna Air, formerCBBC presenterAndrew Hayden-Smith andEmmerdale actorsDale Meeks,Charlie Hardwick,Chelsea Halfpenny,Laura Norton andVictoria Hawkins. Also appearing in the series was the now glamour modelFrancoise Boufhal ("Ellie Baines") andCharlie Hunnam, who later starred in the American TV seriesSons of Anarchy and co-starred inPacific Rim (2013).

The founder producer/director (1989–95) wasMatthew Robinson. After being promoted to become executive producer ofByker Grove for two years (1995–97), he became executive producer ofEastEnders, then Head of Drama forBBC Wales, and now runsKhmer Mekong Films inCambodia.Byker Grove was also home to writers such asCatherine Johnson (who went on to penMamma Mia!, theABBA musical) andMatthew Graham (This Life,Doctor Who and co-creator of BBC One'sLife on Mars). The first writer wasAdele Rose–in Series 1 she wrote episodes 1–4 and 6; her daughter, Carrie Rose, wrote episode 5. The most prolific writer wasBrian B. Thompson, who wrote 50 episodes over 12 series.Byker Grove gave Academy Award-winning directorTom Hooper his first break into TV drama when he directed four episodes in 1997.^[12]

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.

Byker Grove was not intended for young children, but aimed at a young adult and teenage audience, as it tackledcontroversial subjects such asdrug addiction,child abuse,homelessness,teen pregnancy,homophobia andabortion. 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 byThe Guardian in a 2018 list of "definitive" shows for teenagers; Iman Amrani describes it as "the north's answer toGrange Hill", praising its "gritty" writing, which took on difficult topics such as sexual relationships (including those which were same sex) and foster care.^[13]

In November 1994,Byker Grove featured the firstgaykiss on UK children's television.^[14] 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 producerMatthew Robinson to be sacked.^[14] However, the BBC strongly backed the storyline, which received countrywide support from gay teenagers, many teachers, and parents.^[11] The 2004 series saw the character of Bradley agonising over hissexuality 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 abrain 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 accidentalgas explosion after 11 years on the show.^[11]

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 unsupervisedpaintballing session, in which he ignored warnings and removed his face guard, in a scene filmed on location atAydon Castle nearCorbridge.

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.^[15]

Until Series 10 (1998) the rival youth club was known asDenton 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 ofBenwell 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 becameAnt & Dec forThe Cult of... album (Singles include "Let's Get Ready to Rhumble", "Better Watch Out", "We're On The Ball")
• Byker Grooove – girl band starringDonna Air ('Charlie'), Jayni Hoy ('Leah') and Vicky Taylor ('Angel') whose single "Love Your Sexy...!!" reached No. 48 on theUK Singles Chart in December 1994.Byker Grooove evolved into the duoCrush with Jayni Hoy and Donna Air. (Singles included "Jellyhead" (UK No. 50) and "Luv'd Up" (UK No. 45) onTelstar Records.)^[16] In the United States, whereByker Grove did not air and nor was the Crush duo promoted as being associated with the series, "Jellyhead" reached No. 72 on theBillboard Hot 100 in December 1996.^[17] 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 featuringBrett Adams ('Noddy') and David Oliver ('Marcus'). (Singles include "Do We Rock", "Stand Tough", and "Freakytime" onEternal Records.)

Other bands connected toByker Grove include:

• Freefaller – includes David Oliver of Point Break
• Kane Gang – writers of the original theme music, a development from the "OohGary Davies on your radio" jingle forBBC Radio 1.
• Kenickie - bassist Emmy Kate Montrose appeared in the series, credited under her real name Emma Jackson.^[18]

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.

This is a list of characters who appeared in the show as members of the Grove from 1989 to 2006. (When surname is not listed, it is either unknown, or was never mentioned in the show)

* Indicates character was still in the show when it finished.

+ In the books that accompanied the series, Duncan's surname was listed as MacDonald until 1992, despite it being stated in the show in his 1st appearance (Series 1, Episode 3) that it is Sperring.

Although most of the action took place in the Grove, several characters' home lives and families were also shown. Some families remained in the show for many years. The house next door to the Grove was home to the Dobson family (1990–93) followed by the Turnbulls (1993–97) and then the Watsons (1998–2000). Other long-running families included the O'Hagans, the Carters and the various children at Lou Gallagher's foster home.

• CBBC
• Grange Hill
• Children's Ward

• Byker Grove atIMDb
• Byker Grove at theBFI'sScreenonline
• Byker Grove episode guideArchived 7 February 2019 at theWayback Machine
• Byker Grove cast listArchived 7 February 2019 at theWayback Machine

• 1989 British television series debuts
• 2006 British television series endings
• 1980s British children's television series
• 1990s British children's television series
• 2000s British children's television series
• British television series revived after cancellation
• BBC children's television shows
• British English-language television shows
• British television series about teenagers
• Television shows set in Tyne and Wear
• Television shows set in Newcastle upon Tyne
• British teen drama television series
• 1990s British LGBTQ-related drama television series
• 2000s British LGBTQ-related drama television series

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