Adele Rose, creator of Byker Grove who helped discover Ant and Dec, dies aged 87

Scriptwriter was also longest-serving writer on Coronation Street

Adele Rose with fellow writer John Finch on the set of Coronation Street in 1962 (Rex Features)

Adele Rose, who created Byker Grove and propelled Ant and Dec to national fame, has died at the age of 87.

The television writer’s death was announced by her husband, Peter Chadwick, who said that she died from pneumonia on 28 December. She had been taken to hospital a week earlier.

Rose was best known as the longest-serving writer on Coronation Street, having written nearly 460 episodes of the ITV soap from 1961 until 1998.

She asked to be on the show’s writing staff while working as a secretary at Granada Television, having explained to producers that the show needed women working behind the scenes.

In 1989, she created Byker Grove, the influential school drama set in a district of Newcastle. There, she helped discover Ant and Dec, who rose to fame playing best friends PJ and Duncan on the series. 

Other stars whose careers were launched by the show included Donna Air, Charlie Hunnam and Jill Halfpenny.

“She had a huge sense of humour which was often quite naughty and quite wicked,” Chadwick told Chronicle Live. “She loved writing the battleaxes in Coronation Street.”

He continued: “She was Jewish and she had a very Jewish mother attitude to life. She had to make sure everybody was okay. Her son said that if she didn’t have anything to worry about, it would worry her. Everybody around here adored her. They were a little bit starstruck, but she was very, very warm. It’s been a wonderful 40 years with her.”

Rose retired from scriptwriting in 2000, and is survived by her husband as well as her son Steve and grandson Daniel.