Ant and Dec Buy Byker Grove

[Kev Mulrenan]

Genuinely embarassed or hyping it for a rebroadcast?

This link shows their first scene together

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ae0_Tx31MY

Article

Ant and Dec are scared of their past
Friday, 11 April 2008
Ant and Dec have bought their old TV shows 'SM:TV Live' and 'Byker Grove'.
The star TV presenters have snapped up the rights to both the Saturday morning entertainment show and all 344 episodes of the Newcastle-based children's drama - which first shot them to fame in the early 90s - so they can now only be shown with their permission.
Declan Donnelly told Britain's The Sun newspaper: "The shows are an important part of our history so we wanted to take over the rights. That way, if anyone wants to show them, they have to come to us to get permission."
The pair swooped after Zenith Entertainment, who made the shows, went bust last year.
The programmes are now the property of their TV company Gallowgate Productions.
Friends of Ant and Dec have claimed they made the decision to avoid embarrassing clips of them being shown on TV.
One source said; "It's no secret that Ant and Dec are hugely popular so repeating 'Byker Grove' would make sense.
"But it could prove embarrassing for the guys with their past on such public display."
Dec joined the cast of 'Byker Grove' in the role of Duncan in 1990, with Ant coming on board a year later to play his friend PJ.
Both of them left the show in 1993.
The pair later presented the hugely popular 'SM:TV Live' from 1998 until 2001.

[Gary Critcher]

for crying out loud, who'd want to see any of that c**p again??

[David Barron]

They are not the first stars, and certainly will not be the last to buy the rights to their own shows. If they are going to be exploited, they might as well expolit themselves.

[Rob Moss]

Apr 12, 2008 18:17:38 GMT Gary Critcher said:

for crying out loud, who'd want to see any of that c**p again??

People a lot younger than you, I'd guess... Nobody of any age has a monopoly on nostalgia...

[Peter Elliott]

Apr 25, 2008 20:26:48 GMT Rob Moss said:

Apr 12, 2008 18:17:38 GMT Gary Critcher said:

for crying out loud, who'd want to see any of that c**p again??

People a lot younger than you, I'd guess... Nobody of any age has a monopoly on nostalgia...

Take "Grange Hill" for example. You get those who are nostalgic about the Tucker Jenkins era, those who love the Pogo, Stewpot and Gripper days, Zammo, Roland and Fay Lucas era or my own pet era - Ziggy, Robbie, Ronnie, Cleaver and Gonch! I never watched it beyond them and I'm sure each era has its own nostalgic appeal.

[Deleted]

Mind you, I watched all those eras you mention and liked them all! I only really gave up on Grange Hill when they started filmising it. It just had a different feel from then on because of it.

[Peter Elliott]

Yeah I watched it in its entirety up till the end of the 12th series when Ziggy Greaves left... I kinda lost interest then. I liked them all too though looking at them now, I can't say I like the Pogo + Stewpot era much... I only have to see Susan Tully and I dive for cover! The 8th to 12th series - the Bronson era - is my fave... Michael Sheard's performance was just wonderful and there were many great characters and situations.

What saddens me is its extremely unlikely we'll ever get those on DVD since there is a lot of music usage in them and if scenes were given the chop like they were in the GH DVDs that have been released, there won't be much left of some episodes and with vital scenes missing, they'd make very little sense. The famous Zammo on smack episodes had scenes in an amusement arcade where the "Star Wars" machine is very prominently heard... would shudder to think how much it would cost just to clear that alone.