Byker Grove's Andrew Hayden-Smith responds to surprise reboot news
Byker Grove star Andrew Hayden-Smith has responded to the news that the show is being rebooted, admitting it was "totally unexpected".
The actor famously played the role of Ben Carter on the hit series, starting in 1996 before his character was killed off in 2003.
Yesterday (July 4), it was confirmed that Ant and Dec – who rose to fame originally as PJ and Duncan on the show – were working on a reboot of the show called Byker, which "will navigate the challenges of the 2020s".
Related: Ant and Dec announce huge career news after 25 years with ITV
Reacting to the news, Andrew told Metro: "It was totally unexpected. I’ve always wondered if we’d ever get to see the old series again shown somewhere because I get a lot of messages asking about that and you can’t find it anywhere, which is strange. But it was a total shock."
"I was there for seven series and then had sort of outgrown the show and I’d stayed for so long that I sort of began working as a youth leader at the youth club just in the show and then I got killed off," he further reflected.
Despite his character dying, the actor quipped that he could come back like the character JR in the film Dallas: JR Returns, which revealed that the apparently fatal gunshot JR Ewing fired was at a mirror, not himself.
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"I would love to be involved in the reboot, obviously, would have to be a new character, maybe? I don’t know," Andrew suggested. "I would have to be – I don’t know, a parent or a youth leader – to be involved, I guess. But yeah, I’d be totally up for that."
The star also reflected on Byker Grove's groundbreaking same-sex kiss between Noddy (Brett Adams) and Gary (George Trotter), expressing hope that the new series will including LGBTQ+ storylines.
"The gay kiss at the time caused uproar and it was really innocent peck on the cheek. Everyone remembers the scene in the cinema with Noddy and Gary," he said.
"I would hope that the new series would definitely have some LGBTQ+ storylines. And I’m sure they will tackle them very sensitively. It will be interesting to see how they’re gonna do it."
Byker will air on the BBC, though a release date is yet to be confirmed.
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