It's just not canny lush, like. After 17 years, 18 series and 344 episodes, Byker Grove is to be axed by the BBC.
It seems that the Newcastle-set show is the first victim of the BBC's new thinking on teen programmes. As part of his Creative Future blueprint, director general Mark Thompson recently announced plans to create a teen brand while calling on Children's BBC to focus more on primary schoolchildren. Byker Grove was a bit too old for them, and probably not quite hip enough for a T4-style teen strand.
For those of us who grew up with it, Byker Grove was a classic teatime drama, Grange Hill with a Geordie accent. Who can forget pint-sized redhead Spuggy? Or the tragic paintball accident that cost PJ his sight? For some reason my favourite memory is of Geoff the manager saying, "I'll not have a donkey in the Grove!" when confronted with said quadruped.
The BBC's press release provides us with some fascinating information including some of the grisly deaths at the Grove over the years (not least poor old Geoff, who bought it in a gas explosion in 2000). Here's a fan site that allows you to listen to that great theme song. What are your favourite memories of the Grove? And is its demise a sad thing for children's drama? Some fans are clearly in mourning already - and one poor guy only just learned that Geoff had died.
