Lisa Armstrong’s pain as Ant McPartlin gets his family dream

Appearing in the show between 1989 and 1992, PJ and Duncan were the cool kids of Byker Grove. Seriously, who else could rock so many block primary colours at once?

It's safe to say the boys - now more commonly known as Ant and Dec - have done alright for themselves. In the early '90s they nabbed themselves a record deal and released the absolute TUNE that is Let's Get Ready to Rhumble. Since then they've picked up a record 17 Best TV Presenter NTAs for their services to everything from SM Live to *I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! *In fact, we'd say ITV game show Red or Black might be their only minor blip on an otherwise-flawless CV.

Denise starred as Polly on the show between 1990 and 1991 in a short seven-episode stint.

Making her mark on the telly world, Denise has since appeared as Natalie Horrocks in Coronation Street, lent her services to the Loose Women panel and was a contestant on the sixth series of* Dancing on Ice* alongside professional partner Matt Evers. Oh, and she won the ninth series of Celebrity Big Brother.

Playing Charlie Charlton, Donna was just ten years old when she joined the Byker Grove cast in 1992.

Donna went on to become a presenter, most notably on MTV, TFI Friday and Popstars: The Rivals Extra. She's also appeared in Hollyoaks, blockbuster movie The Mummy Returns and most recently competed on the tenth series of Dancing on Ice.

Yup, actual-Hollywood-actor-type Charlie Hunnam made a brief appearance on Byker Grove as Jason back in '98. WHO KNEW?

Another huge success story, Charlie's since become so in demand he PULLED OUT (no pun intended) of playing Christian Grey in Fifty Shades of Grey; with the role then going to Jamie Dornan. Most recently, Charlie appeared in Guy Ritchie's Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur as actual King Arthur himself.

Jill served absolute '90s scrunchie goals as she played the role of Nicola Dobson from 1989-1992.

Still very much on the scene, Jill went on to win the 2014 series of Strictly Come Dancing and appear in everything from Waterloo Road to Wild at Heart.

We're not gonna lie, we had the biggest crush on Ben Carter from 1995 right the way through to 2003. Then he got killed off and we cried for a week straight. It was a difficult time.

Andrew healed our then-broken hearts as he was reincarnated as a CBBC presenter in the mid-noughties, more recently appearing in *Doctor Who *and Channel 4 dramas Cucumber and Banana.

Ah, youth club leader Geoff. An absolute Byker veteran from 1989-1999, he was brutally killed of in a gas explosion. The scene's still ingrained on our brains and we...can't talk about it.

After Ant and Dec returned to the show for his funeral episode in 1999, Billy made an appearance on Saturday Night Takeaway back in 2014. He also achieved a masters degree in special needs education in 2006.

Remember floppy-haired '90s boyband Point Break? No? Well, um, it was made up of Byker Grove actors Brett Adams and David 'Ollie' Oliver and their pal Declan Bennett. We'd highly recommend their top 40 smash single Freaky Time.

We're cheating here slightly, but said pal Declan's since been cast as Charlie Cotton in EastEnders. Bit of a tenuous link, but interesting nonetheless.