The original cast of Fame Academy have reunited 20 years after the launch of the BBC talent show, as stars like Lemar and first ever winner David Sneddon enjoyed a night out together.
Fame Academy launched to a great fanfare in the autumn of 2002, just as ITV debuted Popstars: The Rivals, the series famous for giving us Girls Aloud, as the likes of Cheryl, Nadine Coyle and the late Sarah Harding all won a place in the band. While it didn't set viewing figures alight as much as BBC bosses would have liked, Fame Academy did have a loyal fanbase who tuned in every Friday night to see the pupils sing for their place in the competition.
Hosted by Patrick Kielty, Fame Academy saw all its contestants move into a mansion where they lived together, as well as getting lessons from vocal coaches Carrie and David Grant and dance teacher Kevin Adams, all under the watchful eye of outspoken and notoriously hard to please principal Richard Park, who famously clashed with presenter Patrick on numerous occasions.
Singers who featured on the first series of Fame Academy included the show's biggest success story, Lemar, who finished third and then went onto score huge UK chart hits with Dance With U and If There's Any Justice.
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Scottish singer/songwriter David, a latecomer to the series, ended up being Lemar and runner up Sinead Quinn in the final, before going onto have a number 1 debut single with his self-penned track Stop Living the Lie. Follow up Don't Let Go followed that into the top five, before David's chart success started to dry up. These days he is a sought after songwriter, working on several tracks with Louis Tomlinson for the One Direction star's recent number 1 album.
David shared a group photo of this weekend's Fame Academy reunion on his Instagram, with the likes of Sinead, Lemar, Richard and Kevin all visible, along with other stars like Ainslie Henderson and Malachi Cush.
The now 44-year-old captioned the snap: "So here’s a thing… it’s been 20 years since I took part in the BBC1 tv show Fame Academy and last night, for the first time since, we all got together for the 20 year reunion, a stones throw away from actual house. There were tears and a LOT of laughs, and the fact we still all feel so close even though time and distance keeps us apart tells you that the show was a bit special. I love them all very deeply because you can’t go through an experience as surreal, terrifying, exciting and life defining (good and bad) like the one we all had without developing a bond for life."
He added: "However I got so drunk that I have experienced a mega hangover today the likes of which science has never seen. At one point whilst spread out on the couch my son asked me “are you going to die?” I thought I might."
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