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The show ran between 1989 and 2006, and was set in a youth club in the Byker district of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Byker Grove was the original idea of
late TV executive Andrea Wonfor. In 1987, Andrea approached veteran soap writer
Adele Rose. Together they created a single pilot episode featuring kids aged
8-11 at an out-of-school club (transmitted on Tyne Tees TV in 1988). In autumn
1988, Andrea got backing from Anna Home, then Head of drama, BBC TV. Anna gave
the green light for a run of a series of six 25-minute episodes on BBC TV. The
age of the main characters was raised to 12-16 after support from first
producer-director, Matthew Robinson. The first series therefore centred on young
teenagers crossing the bridge from childhood to adulthood. 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 not in reality filmed in the Byker area of Newcastle. The actual youth club set was in
Benwell, 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 & Wear area) and other landmarks in the
real Byker (such as the famous architecture that is the Byker Wall and surrounding estate) are used for
filming backdrops.
The "youth club" building which is what the viewers see onscreen, known as The Mitre used to be a nightclub
and a pub (which was mentioned in a few storylines from episodes in the late
90s) before it was bought by Zenith Television, who film the series. The
building housed the actual set, production offices, make up suite and costume
department. Currently the property is semi-vacant, and the Zenith North
Television signs have been removed outside the building. |
 Copyright(C) 2007
- 2020. All rights reserved
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| Genre |
Drama/Soap |
| Created by |
Adele Rose
Andrea Wonfor |
| Voices
of |
|
| Narrated
by |
|
| Counrty
of origin |
United
Kingdom |
| No.
of episodes |
344 |
| Running
Time) |
25 minutes |
| Original
Run |
8 November 1989 – 10 December
2006 |
| Language |
English |
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