Byker Grove’s Spuggy star Lyndyann Barrass looks unrecognisable over 30 years on from debut
BYKER Grove first graced our screens three decades ago – and one of its stars looks completely unrecognisable since appearing.
While the beloved show may have spawned some glowing careers, for one cast member, it was the job that would eventually end their time in the industry altogether.
Lyndyann Barrass was one of the originals, enjoying four years playing the red-haired youngster, Spuggy.
But it was her role on Byker Grove which quickly ended her time as an actress a few years later.
She told The Sun: “I appeared in a few one-off dramas, but I’d been typecast as the redhead from ‘that Geordie show’ and struggled to find work.
“Aged 21, I joined a band called Angel, but we weren’t successful and I left after a year.
“Three years later, I was beaten unconscious in the street by three strangers who recognised me as Spuggy.”
It would be the tipping point and she took her career in a different direction.
She added: “Thankfully, I wasn’t badly injured, but it was the final straw.
“I then decided to quit show business for good.”
In 1999, the Sunderland-based star married husband Allan and had two kids with him before their split in 2012.
She told The Mirror in 2014: “I’m a newly single parent with kids. I work in a bank call centre four mornings a week when the kids are in school.”
She says Ant and Dec‘s daily income was two years’ wages for her – but joked that she still has to buy the drinks when she sees them.
“I probably earn just over half of their daily salary for a year,” she said a few years later.
“I saw them last June when we did a surprise for them on the One Show. They owe me a drink. The last time I saw them, I bought them one!”