Ant and Dec tease PJ and Duncan cameo as they announce Byker Grove reboot

Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly have introduced that they are going to be producing a reboot of the teenager drama which made them well-known – Byker Grove.

The presenting duo shared a video on Twitter, telling followers they’d “exciting news” and that 17 years after the present got here off air, they might be rebooting the nineties TV traditional “for a whole new audience”.

McPartlin and Donnelly – who famously performed PJ and Duncan within the unique sequence – might be government producers and artistic consultants on the reboot, which might be referred to as merely Byker.

Like the unique present, Byker might be filmed and produced in and round Newcastle and the North East, and the duo will even combine their Prince’s Trust Making It In Media course into the manufacturing.

The presenters mentioned they “owe a lot” to “the very special show… which gave us our breaks,” including “as proud Geordies, we’re looking forward to 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”.

They mentioned they might be bringing a “fresh incarnation to a whole new generation”, and that the drama would comply with a brand new group of younger individuals and their households “as they try to navigate the challenges they face today in the 2020s”.

Ant and Dec went on to say they have been “buzzing” after speaking about characters and storylines, joking about what PJ and Duncan could possibly be doing proper now (PJ is acting at Wembley Stadium along with his platinum promoting rap album apparently).

Teasing the potential of a cameo, when PJ and Duncan might “pop into The Grove”, they appeared to recommend it was unlikely, including: “I wouldn’t have thought so.”

Byker is in growth with Fulwell 73 – which has beforehand produced reveals together with Friends: The Reunion, The Kardashians, Bros: After The Screaming Stops – and in addition with Mitre Studios who produce Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.

Byker Grove , which was created by Coronation Street author Adele Rose, and Andrea Wonfor – who commissioned reveals together with The Word, Eurotrash, and The Big Breakfast – first aired on ITV on 8 November, 1989.

While widespread with the younger individuals it was created for, some mother and father criticised the present for tackling some extra critical and controversial storylines, beforehand averted in youngsters’s TV.

Several characters died in automotive accidents on the present, and McPartlin’s character PJ was blinded throughout a paintballing session gone improper.

Byker Grove additionally famously confirmed the primary homosexual kiss on youngsters’s TV in 1994 – the identical 12 months as Channel 4 cleaning soap Brookside had their very own same-sex kiss – attracting a number of complaints from viewers and a good quantity of unfavourable press on the time.

A staple of British tv all through the Nineties and Noughties, it ran for 18 sequence, lastly ending in 2006.

Read extra:
YouTuber reveals ‘triple-positive breast most cancers’ analysis
Actor spoke about ‘risks’ of mountaineering months earlier than loss of life

Click to subscribe to Backstage wherever you get your podcasts

As nicely as giving Ant and Dec their begin in TV, Byker Grove additionally launched the careers of Donna Air, Jill Halfpenny and Andrew Hayden-Smith.

A launch date has but to be introduced for Byker, which can air on the BBC.