TV favourites Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly are bringing back popular teen drama Byker Grove for a new series 17 years after it was last broadcast.
The popular duo, known as Ant and Dec, say they are working on bringing the show which launched their careers back to our screens soon.
The new series, currently in development with Fulwell 73 and Mitre Studios, will return under the name Byker and be filmed and produced in and around the North East.
It will see a new generation of teenagers navigating the challenges faced by young adults today, touching on youth and adult storylines, and set against a backdrop of Newcastle and the North East.
McPartlin and Donnelly, who played fun-loving duo PJ and Duncan in the original series, will serve as executive producers and creative consultants of the reboot.
But what happened to PJ and Duncan? We take a look at everything that happened back in the day.
Who did Ant and Dec play in Byker Grove?
Dec was first to grace our screens, and was cast to play Duncan in the second series of the BBC children’s hit show Byker Grove in 1989.
A year later, Ant joined the cast as the character PJ.
One of the biggest storylines was when Ant’s character PJ went blind during a paintball accident, with the famous line “he canna see, man”, but when Ant and Dec turned 18, the BBC dumped them from the show, saying they were “too old” to carry on.
Ant said: “We were both 18 and learned the lesson that you can go from being someone to no-one in a split second.”
When did Ant and Dec become a TV duo?
The pair first met on set, but soon it became clear they were destined to be best buddies off-screen, too. Ant reached out to Dec, sending him a Christmas card in his first year on the show, and invited him to watch their beloved Newcastle FC.
They immediately bonded and have been best friends ever since.
Dec previously said: “And that was that. It just happened immediately. We clicked. We’d spend all day making each other laugh and annoying everyone and quoting Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer lines to each other.”
Dec appeared on Byker Grove from 1989 for five years and Ant from 1990 for four years and, when their parts were written out, they decided to stick together.
Dec told Weekend magazine: “We made a pact. We said to each other, ‘Look, whatever happens, I’ll always be there for you and you’re never in this life on your own or against the world — you’ve always got a mate looking out for you.”
What happened to PJ and Duncan?
PJ — played by Ant — was a popular character but his womanising ways caught up with him when he tried to date two girls, Debbie and Amanda.
The girls found out about each other and wanted to get their own back, organising a game where they aimed to bombard him with paintballs in revenge.
But things went downhill quickly, when PJ ignored warnings and took off his eye protection. When Debbie and Amanda fired their shot, they hit him in the eye, blinding him.
When PJ got out of hospital, he was completely blind, and started to integrate again with his friends, but faced a lot of issues and troubles coming to terms with his eyesight loss. A short time later, it was revealed that PJ has been offered a place at a school for the blind in the South, and he left the series, with Duncan leaving soon after.
When did they become pop stars? What songs did they release?
After leaving Byker Grove, the boys embarked on a pop career, and kept the PJ and Duncan name due to their popularity on the series.
Apart from their big hit Let’s Get Ready To Rhumble, the boys released a number of songs:
- Why Me (1992)
- If I Give You My Number (1994)
- Eternal Love (1994)
- Our Radio Rocks (1995)
- Stuck On You (1995)
- U Crazy Katz (1995)
- Perfect (1995)
- Stepping Stone (1996)
