Byker Grove was an after-school essential back in the day, with teens rushing to the TV after Newsround to catch what the cool kids of the Byker youth club were getting up to. The hit BBC show ran from 1989 to 2006, with a jaw-dropping 344 episodes – and stars Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly have recently announced that they plan to bring the series back in a long-awaited reboot.
The original version of the show followed the members of a youth club in Newcastle, and it didn’t hold back from airing hard-hitting and topical storylines. Some people even called for the show to be axed when it showed the first same-sex kiss on children’s television, but the BBC stood strong among plenty of support from educators, parents, and LGBT viewers. Alongside the proud moment in TV history, it also covered issues such as drug addiction, teen pregnancy, and tragic death.
Many of the kids on the show had huge aspirations to overcome their struggles and find success when they reached the adult world – but what happened to the real kids behind the characters on screen? As Byker Grove looks to be coming back decades later, the Mirror takes a look at what the OG cast is up to now.
Who could forget the now legendary cautionary tale that was PJ’s accidental paintball blinding at the hands of girlfriends Debbie Dobson and Amanda Bewick? The horrifying scenes at the end of series four saw the girls aim and fire at Peter ‘PJ’ Jenkins (played by Ant) as punishment for flirting with them both – but it just happened to be at the exact moment the lothario chose to take his goggles off.
His best mate Duncan Sperring (Dec) hilariously screamed, “He cannae see, man!” – but Duncan wasn’t devastated for long, making a move on PJ’s girlfriend Debbie when his sidekick left to go to a school for the blind.
Their real-life counterparts Ant and Dec were just as close in real life, and even before leaving Byker Grove behind they were already well on their way to world domination, launching their band Groove Matrix and their debut single, Tonight I’m Free. The track made it to number 62 in the charts, and while it was no Mr Blobby, it did lay the pathway for their post-Grove foray into music as the mic-wrecking PJ & Duncan.
After classics including If I Give You My Number and Eternal Love, the boys retired their musical alter-egos to focus on TV. SM: TV, Saturday Night Takeaway, Britain’s Got Talent and I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here made the lads two of the biggest stars in the UK, earning an estimated £30million between them in 2016. It’s previously been reported that they have an estimated net worth of approximately £62million each.
Not bad for two teenagers who didn’t even like each other to begin with. “We didn’t particularly like each other at first, I thought he was miserable,” Dec previously revealed speaking on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in 2006. “We’ve rowed a few times – we’re quite competitive,” Ant added.
Now, however, the boys are all grown up. The duo recently shared that they don’t spend as much time together as they used to. Ant, who welcomed his first son in May 2024, admitted to the Sun: “The kids take up a lot of your time, and we rush home to our families to see them when we finish working.” Dec, who shares Isla, six, and Jack, two, with his wife Ali, added: “We still meet up on days off to have a game of golf or go out for dinner. We’re just not joined at the hip…”
Part of the original cast, Lyndyann Barrass was just 12 when she joined the show as surly, hormonal teen Kirsty ‘Spuggie’ Campbell. Despite being one of the Grove’s biggest characters, she was written out to go and live with her brother Fraser, leaving Lyndyann devastated. She struggled to find work as an actress, fearing she’d been typecast as “the redhead from ‘that Geordie show’.” And after a failed stint with a band called Angel, she was subjected to a brutal assault that convinced her to turn her back on fame.
“I was beaten unconscious in the street by three strangers who recognised me as Spuggie,” she told The Sun. “Thankfully, I wasn’t badly injured, but it was the final straw. I decided to quit show business for good.” In 1999, the Sunderland-based star married husband Allan and had two kids with him before their split in 2012.
As a single mum, she took a job working in a call centre and calculated it would take her two years to earn what her former co-stars Ant and Dec make in just one day. She told The Mirror in 2015: “I’m a newly single parent with two kids. I work in a bank call centre four mornings a week when the kids are in school – I probably earn just over half of their daily salary for a year.”
However, Lyndyann remains on good terms with the duo, adding: “They haven’t changed. They’re still the two daftest. They are very grounded and lovely. They don’t forget their roots and where they come from.” In 2023, it was reported that Lyndyann, who lives in Sunderland, now owns a house cleaning firm called Dusty Springclean. As reported by The Sun, she posted a notice on the company’s social media page to inform clients that her hourly rate needed to rise to £14 to make up for the effects of the cost of living crisis.
Most recognised by his epic lamb chops and moustache, youth club leader Geoff Keegan was beloved by all. Geoff’s story came to a devastating end when he died in an accidental gas explosion, but his emotional funeral reunited many of the show’s big guns – including PJ and Duncan. Thankfully, actor Billy Fane is still very much alive and well, and after his character’s tragic demise he went on to appear in panto and the 2000 hit movie Billy Elliot.
He’s still pals with the Grove kids, and had a whole This Your Life-style segment devoted to him on Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway. When Ant entered rehab for an addiction to painkillers in 2017, Billy was one of the first to offer his support, describing Ant as a “lovely, hard-working lad”. “I was so sorry to hear of the problems and wish him a quick recovery,” said Billy.
Last year, during an appearance on Loose Women, Billy revealed he’d gone on to train as a teacher for dyslexic adults in his mid-50s – a career path caring Geoff would likely approve of. Billy explained: “I went to teach in a young offenders institution. I then did a Master’s degree in Special Educational Needs and Intuitive Learning and the college I was working for had the contract for delivering education in prisons and young offenders insinuations and prisons across the country.”
Byker Grove became the first British children’s drama to tackle sexuality and coming out when a confused Noddy Fishwick, played by Brett Adams, misread the signs and kissed his best mate Gary Hendrix on the cheek during an outing to the cinema. Gary was furious and marched out, but, despite a public furore, actor Brett and the BBC rightly stood by the storyline.
“About a month or two after the episode had aired, I received a letter from a young lad about 15 or 16 saying he was going through the same [thing] as Noddy and if he hadn’t watched that episode on that day then he would have continued to think he was the only one going through it,” Brett told Attitude magazine in 2014.
“He said he honestly felt like dying by suicide but after seeing the show and the helpline number on the end credits, he called, got advice and was now much happier. He’d told his parents and friends who supported him and he’d even managed to find a boyfriend. If my storyline upset 10,000 people but helped one person then I see it as a monumental success.” After leaving the show, Brett formed a band called Point Break with co-star David Oliver, who played Marcus.
Together with Declan Bennett, they achieved moderate success with hits including Stand Tough and Freakytime. But after that wrapped, Brett is believed to have quit showbiz and to work as a barman at the Haven Holiday Camp in Weymouth. The actor has four children and according to Digital Spy, now works as a manager at the town’s Lakeside Bowling Alley.
Donna Air joined the show at age 10 and played ambitious budding journalist Charlie Charlton. Like Ant and Dec, she formed a band with her co-stars, releasing single Love Your Sexy with Jayni Hoy and Vicky Taylor as Byker Groove.
She moved to London aged 15 and formed girlband Crush with Jayni but their 1996 singles Jellyhead and Luv’d Up failed to set the charts alight. But they got her spotted by TV execs who landed presenting gigs for MTV, The Big Breakfast and Popstars: The Rivals Extra. Geordie Donna struck up a party pal friendship with All Saints star Natalie Appleton, with the pair living next door to one another, partying with the Primrose Hill Set and cosying up for FHM.
However, she rebranded at the ripe old age of 22 after meeting multi-millionaire Damian Aspinall, who was 19 years her senior. Desperate to make it as a serious actress, she told the Evening Standard: “I don’t think I ever was a ladette. I’m actually a bit of a nerd. I can’t even have dinner in a low-cut top without feeling self-conscious. You try to be cool, but underneath it, I was too much of a goody-goody. It took me five years to get a bad reputation – it’s going to take me 20 to get rid of it…”
She and Damien welcomed daughter Freya in 2003 but broke up in 2007 amid rumours he refused to marry her. Following the split, the beauty dated Kate, Princess of Wales’s brother James for four years, followed by property developer Ben Carrington. In 2013 she was touted for the Strictly Come Dancing line-up and later competed in Dancing On Ice. She continues to act and, in 2020, starred as Fi Hansen in the BBC One drama, The Split.
Donna’s ex Damian is well known for his conservation efforts with wild animals, and she hasn’t fully dropped the lifestyle despite the breakup. In 2023, it was revealed that her daughter Freya was hand-rearing two orphan lion cubs at the family’s 30-room country house in Kent. Freya, whose father runs Howletts Wild Animal Park, shared: “If anyone says the lions are domesticated, no. If anything, they lionise me. I become a lion. I speak lion. Hand-rearing is the last option possible, but I am their mother figure. It’s basically like raising two children.”
Played by Nicola Bell, Debbie was PJ’s on-off girlfriend who eventually fell in love with his best mate Duncan. Off-screen, she was in a real-life romance with Ant which ended due to the pressure of PJ & Duncan’s hectic tour schedule. Ant told the Independent at the time: “When you’re touring you can’t have a relationship by phone. I’m terrible on the phone.”
Ant, who was previously married to make-up artist Lisa Armstrong for 12 years, is now married to former PA Anne-Marie Corbett, with the couple recently welcoming their first child together. Meanwhile, Nicola appeared in the legal drama Kavanagh QC before becoming a flight attendant for Virgin Atlantic. The multitalented mother-of-four from Tyne and Wear now works as a make-up artist and is also a qualified level 2 and 3 PT instructor. She’s also remained good friends with her famous ex.
“We’re still in touch and still friends and I know that he’s doing OK,” she said of his rehab stay in 2017. He’s had some lovely messages from people and a lot of support.”
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