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Dark nostalgia

The watcher in the woods was another scary Disney film... NARAK!!!
 
As stated in another post.

I have recently been watching Byker Grove. I have just got to that episode. PJ versus the paintball guns.

I did watch it live at the time, the episodes of byker never got repeated until now. My memory of it is vague. I always thought he shouted Debbie just before. It was in fact Noddy. I memory is vague about who fired.

For a show aimed at teenagers it was very well done. Would something like this be done now, the audience wouldn't be there. At the the time, very hard hitting. Can imagine it freaked a few teenagers out.
 
Out of curiosity, what happens in this episode?

I wasn’t alive when Byker Grove aired (to my knowledge); I think it was on more when my parents were young (now 51 and 50, for reference).

Is it Byker Grove that starred Ant and Dec?
 
I actually watched it too, and all I can remember is Ant McPartlin getting shot in the eyes and blinded with a paintball when taking part in a paintball fight when he'd taken his goggles off for some reason.
 
Truth be told, I get Byker Grove and Grange Hill (another programme my parents talk about from their youth) mixed up.

I mainly know that one of them starred a young Ant and Dec and my dad ate breakfast with the cast of the other one when he was on Blue Peter as a child.
 
The story so far

An illegal game of paintball is set up between Byker Grove and rival youth group Denton Burn. Previously, they would do lazer quest. But speedie from byker has joined the army, so the rest feel its time to be more grown up.)

Game is organised by an unpopular lad at Byker and a random bloke who has thr equipment. Lad gets £5 off each participant

PJ (or Ant to you and me) has been stringing along two woman in previous episodes. Debbie and Amanda. He deflowers Debbie in the cellar of Byker Grove one night. (Debbie's family lives next door and enter the ground to the club via a broken fence in their back garden.)

Next night he tries a similar move with Amanda. Debbie's mum comments about light on in the cellar to Debbie. Who goes to investigate. Sees PJ (Ant to you and me) doing a similar thing with Amanda. Debbie's runs off, before we see Amanda rejecting PJ (Ant to you and Me) saying "I'm not that type of girl." To which PJ responds "yes you are."

Debbie, runs off to her sister (played by Jill Halfpenny.) Who because of some plot, has married an eco carrier and moved to a Forrest, so he can work in tye forest cutting tress and replanting, which involves the actor riding round on quad, trying not to look like he hasn't done it before. Ant (or PJ as he was then) finds out why she run off, finds the house, and arrives in the middle of a storm, as a local is having a baby. Debbie tells him to do one. He goes back to Byker tail between the legs.

Debbie is now seen as a ****. Although it's never said outright why, the general feeling is she is being rejected by the the others for having sex at the age of 15 with PJ/Ant.

Now we have the basic plot. Now for the episode.

Amanda is upset as to the situation with Debbie and they become friends after explaining nothing happened. This after chasing her around the city the Newcastle in 3 scenes. Neither had got on, because both fancied PJ and Debbie sees her as a roval. They both decide at the last min to join the game paintball, with the intention of shooting Ant/PJ, to eliminate him from the game.

Byker Grove kids are taken to a castle, in the back of military type van where they meet Denton Burn. All are suited in blue overalls for Byker. Grey for Denton. The rules are explained. Shot and out (To which no one ever leaves the battle when shot.) Horn sounds game starts. Much

Jeff/Geoff finds out about the game back at Byker, from a character that is religious. She deep down, knows something bad will happen. Hence why we sir her praying alot walking around with a concerned and worried luck on her face. Jeff/Geoff drives off at and indicated 75mph in a ford escort style transit van (which must have been shaking) using only a map as reference to this site.

After much running, shooting and shouting at each other. Plus, foreshadow of what to happens with each side taking out some of their team mates because of some plot. PJ/Ant runs out into a cloister and see's Noddy ( not the one with the little toy car) on the wall above, after seeing a lad in grey take aim, he takes off his mask and shouts "Noddy?" ( I always thought he shouted Debbie.) Debbie and Amanda now enter the cloister behind him. PJ/Ant turns, and takes 4 shots from Debbie and Amanda in the eyes.

He falls, with now what appears to be egg yolk pouring from his eyes. Jeff/Geoff arrives as does the rest of the group. He sends Duncan (or Dec to you and me) to go and phone an ambulance. Dec (or Duncan at the time) runs off, he stops at a door and speaks the line he will always be remembered for. "He canny see."

The end.

There, I am now watching him come to terms with what's happened. I can remember most of that from memory, as I was abig watcher of Byker. Some aspects I thought were wrong. I didn't know it was Debbie and Amanda that shot, I thought it was one In grey taking aim at Noddy, and he ran off. Furthermore I thought he was shouting Debbie as he wanted to talk her. Dec and Debbie later have a fling in plain sight of PJ, who doesn't Notice because "He canny see."

It was traumatic at the time, especially when you went paintballing for the first time.
 
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Byker Grove was up there with Press Gang, a mature show for teens that wasn't afraid to get dark, but also never got too preachy. (Looking at you Grange Hill and your "just say no" cringe).
The only down side for me, watching it as a young southerner who had never encountered the Geordie accent before, was that even Ceefax page 888 didn't help me understand what the hell was going on! 🤣

Edit: Tell a lie, I had previously been exposed to the accent in Geordie Racer. But that made just as much sense.
 
Some of these storylines sound surprisingly gritty for a CBBC show aimed at children… I know kids’ shows were perhaps a bit “harder” (for lack of a better term) pre-millennium, but I’m surprised they were ever allowed to show storylines like teenage sex on CBBC! Was CBBC aimed at a more mature age group in the 80s and 90s or something?

Having Googled and asked my parents, Byker Grove was a bit later than my parents’ childhood, and it was definitely the cast of Grange Hill that my dad shared breakfast with as a child rather than the cast of Byker Grove! Byker Grove was apparently more in the youth of my dad’s younger brother (born in 1981).

On a separate dark nostalgia-related subject, I’d love to know; when you were a child (or older!), were you ever so scared by something you couldn’t sleep, and what was it that did it?

My cousin, who recently turned 13, was around our house on Friday telling us that she’d watched Thanksgiving (an 18-rated “slasher horror film”, according to Google… I hadn’t heard of it) and The Conjuring with her friends… before my aunt entered the conversation and remarked that she was having to stand outside of my cousin’s room while she went to sleep at night because she was so scared by them. She also said about how she’d had a Scream board game for her recent birthday that was “so scary”!

This got me thinking about things that have scared me so much I couldn’t sleep.

The first thing I remember was when I was 11, and we were on holiday in Florida. In our villa in the evening, my family had for some reason decided to stick on a programme called When Ghosts Attack. The episode we were watching was about a woman who got attacked by a ghost while sat in her massage chair. In hindsight, it was one of those very obviously fake programmes, and was probably about the calibre of programme shown on channels like Alibi or Crime & Discovery here in the UK; all I remember 11 years later was a woman with an American accent uttering the words “I was in my massage chair, having a bit of me time…”. But for some reason, I was terrified, and couldn’t sleep at all that night for fear that a ghost would come and attack me in my bed!

The second thing I remember was when I was about 13. There was a social media trend that started in the US, but eventually made its way to Britain, wherein people would dress up in clown costumes and try to intimidate others, sometimes with chainsaws and other weapons: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-37605841

Everyone I went to school with was sharing “killer clown sightings” on Facebook, and I remember being terrified to go to sleep at night in case a killer clown came through my window…
 
DiogoJ42 said:
Byker Grove was up there with Press Gang, a mature show for teens that wasn't afraid to get dark, but also never got too preachy. (Looking at you Grange Hill and your "just say no" cringe).
The only down side for me, watching it as a young southerner who had never encountered the Geordie accent before, was that even Ceefax page 888 didn't help me understand what the hell was going on! 🤣

Edit: Tell a lie, I had previously been exposed to the accent in Geordie Racer. But that made just as much sense.
Click to expand...

The accent is actually quiet soft. Compared to proper Geordie accent. As per with a gritty northern drama. Anyone from down south. Is posh, lives in a big house and usually goes bankrupt and has to go native.

Few things note.

One, creepy adults. Huge amount of nonces.
Two, the comic Viz is read alot.
Three, Ant and Dec are sometimes stood the other way round. Leading to confusion.
Four, characters disappear. Spuggie has left, no explanation as to why.
 
Slugjc said:
The story so far

An illegal game of paintball is set up between Byker Grove and rival youth group Denton Burn. Previously, they would do lazer quest. But speedie from byker has joined the army, so the rest feel its time to be more grown up.)

Game is organised by an unpopular lad at Byker and a random bloke who has thr equipment. Lad gets £5 off each participant

PJ (or Ant to you and me) has been stringing along two woman in previous episodes. Debbie and Amanda. He deflowers Debbie in the cellar of Byker Grove one night. (Debbie's family lives next door and enter the ground to the club via a broken fence in their back garden.)

Next night he tries a similar move with Amanda. Debbie's mum comments about light on in the cellar to Debbie. Who goes to investigate. Sees PJ (Ant to you and me) doing a similar thing with Amanda. Debbie's runs off, before we see Amanda rejecting PJ (Ant to you and Me) saying "I'm not that type of girl." To which PJ responds "yes you are."

Debbie, runs off to her sister (played by Jill Halfpenny.) Who because of some plot, has married an eco carrier and moved to a Forrest, so he can work in tye forest cutting tress and replanting, which involves the actor riding round on quad, trying not to look like he hasn't done it before. Ant (or PJ as he was then) finds out why she run off, finds the house, and arrives in the middle of a storm, as a local is having a baby. Debbie tells him to do one. He goes back to Byker tail between the legs.

Debbie is now seen as a ****. Although it's never said outright why, the general feeling is she is being rejected by the the others for having sex at the age of 15 with PJ/Ant.

Now we have the basic plot. Now for the episode.

Amanda is upset as to the situation with Debbie and they become friends after explaining nothing happened. This after chasing her around the city the Newcastle in 3 scenes. Neither had got on, because both fancied PJ and Debbie sees her as a roval. They both decide at the last min to join the game paintball, with the intention of shooting Ant/PJ, to eliminate him from the game.

Byker Grove kids are taken to a castle, in the back of military type van where they meet Denton Burn. All are suited in blue overalls for Byker. Grey for Denton. The rules are explained. Shot and out (To which no one ever leaves the battle when shot.) Horn sounds game starts. Much

Jeff/Geoff finds out about the game back at Byker, from a character that is religious. She deep down, knows something bad will happen. Hence why we sir her praying alot walking around with a concerned and worried luck on her face. Jeff/Geoff drives off at and indicated 75mph in a ford escort style transit van (which must have been shaking) using only a map as reference to this site.

After much running, shooting and shouting at each other. Plus, foreshadow of what to happens with each side taking out some of their team mates because of some plot. PJ/Ant runs out into a cloister and see's Noddy ( not the one with the little toy car) on the wall above, after seeing a lad in grey take aim, he takes off his mask and shouts "Noddy?" ( I always thought he shouted Debbie.) Debbie and Amanda now enter the cloister behind him. PJ/Ant turns, and takes 4 shots from Debbie and Amanda in the eyes.

He falls, with now what appears to be egg yolk pouring from his eyes. Jeff/Geoff arrives as does the rest of the group. He sends Duncan (or Dec to you and me) to go and phone an ambulance. Dec (or Duncan at the time) runs off, he stops at a door and speaks the line he will always be remembered for. "He canny see."

The end.

There, I am now watching him come to terms with what's happened. I can remember most of that from memory, as I was abig watcher of Byker. Some aspects I thought were wrong. I didn't know it was Debbie and Amanda that shot, I thought it was one In grey taking aim at Noddy, and he ran off. Furthermore I thought he was shouting Debbie as he wanted to talk her. Dec and Debbie later have a fling in plain sight of PJ, who doesn't Notice because "He canny see."

It was traumatic at the time, especially when you went paintballing for the first time.
Click to expand...

So Ant played PJ? And Dec Duncan? I think you could have made it a bit clearer.
 
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