Famous People
Byker Grove launched the careers of Anthony McPartlin ("P.J.") and Declan Donnelly ("Duncan") who are otherwise known as Ant & Dec as well as the actress Jill Halfpenny, Donna Air, former CBBC presenter Andrew Hayden-Smith and Emmerdale actors Dale Meeks, Charlie Hardwick, Chelsea Halfpenny, Laura Norton and Victoria Hawkins. Also appearing in the series was the now glamour model Francoise Boufhal ("Ellie Baines"). Founder producer/director (1989–95) was Matthew Robinson who, after Byker Grove, became executive producer of EastEnders, Head of Drama BBC Wales and now runs Khmer Mekong Films in Cambodia. It was also home to writers such as Catherine Johnson (who went on to pen Mamma Mia, the ABBA musical) and Matthew Graham (This Life, Doctor Who and co-creator of BBC One's Life on Mars). The first writer was Adele Rose - in Series 1 she wrote eps 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6, her daughter, Carrie Rose, writing ep 5 - and the most prolific was Brian B. Thompson, who wrote 50 episodes over 12 series. Tom Hooper directed four episodes of the show in 1997. Charlie Hunnam now stars in American TV series Sons of Anarchy.
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Famous quotes containing the words famous and/or people:
“Celebrity distorts democracy by giving the rich, beautiful, and famous more authority than they deserve.”
—Maureen Dowd, U.S. journalist. The New York Times, “Giant Puppet Show,” (September 10, 1995)
“There’s so few people in this town with a conscience.”
—Blake Edwards (b. 1922)