Ant & Dec's iconic start in Byker Grove confirmed to be coming to streaming very soon

Byker Grove, the iconic show that catapulted Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly to fame, is making an epic return to our screens in November – 36 years on from its premiere.

We know that the TV duo have been working on a reboot of the teenage drama for a while now, but it was revealed earlier this year that the original episodes would be coming back to streaming too.

And it's now been confirmed that all 18 seasons of the groundbreaking series, which was set in a Newcastle youth club and ran between 1989 and 2006 on BBC One, will be available to stream in full on ITVX from 16th November.

Byker Grove won widespread acclaim for tackling various hard-hitting issues including homophobia, drug addiction, child abuse and abortion, and featured what is believed to be the first gay kiss on UK children’s TV, when Noddy Fishwick kissed Gary Hendrix in a cinema.

It also launched the careers of Ant & Dec, who played PJ and Duncan respectively in the series, with the pair going on to launch music careers under the names of their characters.

Donna Air and Jill Halfpenny also got their starts on the series, where they played Charlie Charlton and Nicola Dobson respectively.

The series being made available for streaming comes as part of a deal between ITVX and Ant & Dec’s production company Mitre Studios, which owns the rights to the series.

Craig Morris, director of channels, ITVX & acquisitions, said: “ITV audiences have grown up with Ant & Dec, so we are delighted to whisk viewers all the way back to the moment they first shared the screen together. Enjoy every moment from this iconic coming-of-age series on ITVX this November.”

Ed Sleeman, MD at Mitre Studios added: “Byker Grove on ITVX marks the return of a legendary series which made TV history, launching the careers of Ant & Dec and helping shape a generation of viewers.”

There haven't been any new developments on the planned Byker Grove reboot in recent months, with Ant & Dec telling RadioTimes.com at last year's National Television Awards that it was "still in development".

"We're still in the process," Dec said. "We didn't realise how long a process it is to do a drama because we're so used to live telly.

"It's a long process but one that we're really enjoying. Talking about the storylines and all the characters, some would come back and who would come back, where would they have been? It's been really, really interesting."

All 18 seasons of Byker Grove will become available to stream on ITVX from 16th November.

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