Byker Grove‘s Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly might have gone on to become TV staples since leaving their acting days behind them, but what happened to their fellow castmates on the show?
Byker Grove aired between 1989 and 2006 and centred around a group of teens in a Newcastle youth club. The show became known for tackling gritty subjects, including drug addiction and teenage pregnancy, and earned itself a Bafta nomination. The coming-of-age series even made history in 1994 when it featured the first same-sex kiss on children’s television.
Here the Mirror takes a look at what the cast of Byker Grove are up to now…
Who could forget the now legendary cautionary tale that was PJ’s accidental paintball blinding at the hands of 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 McPartlin) 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 (Declan Donnelly) screamed that famous line, “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.
In real life, rising stars Ant and Dec, were very close, and even before leaving Byker Grove, 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 didn’t set the music world on fire, 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 together, with SM: TV, Saturday Night Takeaway, Britain’s Got Talent and I’m A Celebrity… making the lads two of the biggest stars in the UK.
It’s 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, 48, previously revealed speaking on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in 2006. “We’ve rowed a few times – we’re quite competitive,” Ant, also 48, added.
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.
Instantly recognisable thanks to his epic lamb chops and moustache, youth club leader Geoff Keegan was beloved by all. Viewers were devastated when he died in an accidental gas explosion in 2000, but his emotional funeral reunited many of the show’s big guns – including PJ and Duncan.
Actor Billy Fane, 79, 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.
And 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 have approved 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 homosexuality 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 committing 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 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. They got her spotted by TV execs, however, and she landed presenting gigs for MTV, The Big Breakfast and Popstars: The Rivals Extra.
Geordie Donna also 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. In 2013, she was touted for the Strictly Come Dancing line-up and later competed in Dancing On Ice.
She went on to date Kate Middleton’s brother James for four years, followed by property developer Ben Carrington.
Last year, it was revealed that Donna’s 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.”
Today, Donna continues to act, starring as Fi Hansen in the 2020 BBC One drama, The Split.
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 welcoming their first child together last year.
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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