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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Zara Woodcock

Byker Grove star Billy Fane looks totally different from BBC days as Geoff

Byker Grove star Billy Fane, 75, looks completely different from his days as Geoff on the BBC young adult's series.

The series aired between 1989 and 2006 and focused on the lives and relationships of a group of young people who are members of a youth club.

It tackled many topics from child abuse and drug addiction to homophobia and abortion.

Billy, who played Geoff Keegan, was an integral part of the series until his character was killed in a gas explosion in 2000.

He went on to star in the iconic film Billy Elliot as Mr Braithwaite, who plays the piano at Billy's ballet lessons.

When he was 58, Billy graduated with a distinction from a postgraduate education course at Hull University. He even got himself a job teaching a six different prisons throughout the north of England.

Billy Fane (left) as Geoff (Mirrorpix)

Billy also appeared in many pantomimes across the North as well as in Heartbeat.

He has had minor roles in films like Cloud Cuckoo Land and Young Hearts Run Free in 2004 and 2011 respectively.

His latest TV appearances include Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway in 2014 and The Last Leg in 2020. At least he's still rocking the 'stache.

Byker Grove was filmed in Newcastle (Mirrorpix)

Byker Grove featured many stars before they found fame, such as Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly.

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.

Ant & Dec are two of the stars who found fame after (REX/Shutterstock)

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The most famous cast member to come out of the BBC series is Hollywood actor Charlie Hunman - who starred in Sons of Anarchy.

From 1989, the antics of the kids down at the Newcastle youth club was essential viewing for 17 years, and it featured its most trailblazing storyline in 1994 when teenager Noddy Fishwick, played by Brett Adams, kissed his friend Gary Hendrix in the cinema.

Meanwhile, Lyndyann Barrass - who was part of the original cast - was just 12 when she joined the show as surly, hormonal teen Kirsty 'Spuggie' Campbell.

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.

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