A TELEVISION series featuring Downham is being screened on BBC1.

The picturesque village appears in the ghost story ‘The Secret of Crickley Hall,’ starring Suranne Jones.

The village pub, the Assheton Arms, features heavily in the three-part mini- series, both in modern scenes and in flashbacks to the 1940s.

Landlady Joycelyn Neve said: “They came in and filmed for four days and renamed the pub Barnaby’s Inn for the programme.

“For the 1940s storyline, they painted the exterior windows black and brown which looked awful. They were repainted once they had finished.

“They were filming in Downham for around four months, on and off.”

Viewers will also be able to spot the village’s church and post office and a cottage which was used as the location for one character’s home.

Joycelyn said: “They didn’t do a huge amount of filming inside, but they did quite a lot of exterior shots. Staff kept trying to put things in the window to try and get them on television. Even now people come in talking about Whistle Down the Wind and Born and Bred, which were filmed in the village, so it’s nice to have something else.”

The village is a popular spot for film crews because of its timeless nature. Due to strict rules on development, it has no road markings, telegraph lines, satellite dishes or TV aerials.

Graham King, also of the Assheton Arms, said: “Having a ghost story in the 400th anniversary of the Pendle Witches brings even more focus to the area. Pendle Hill was very visible on the programme.”

n Episode two of ‘The Secret of Crickley Hall’ is on BBC1 at 9pm on Sunday.