TOMORROW night images of picturesque Downham, in the Ribble Valley, will be beamed into Britain's living rooms as a new BBC drama series begins. PAULINE HAWKINS spoke to one of its stars.

HUNKY actor Samuel J Hudson -- probably best known for his role in Channel 4 soap Brookside -- found his new screen home in East Lancashire a world away from the Liverpool cul-de-sac where trouble was a constant spectre.

"You wouldn't want to live there, would you?" he asks, two years after his character Ryan Musgrove and the rest of the strife-stricken family left Brookside Close after a series of traumatic storylines.

Samuel was busy filming in Downham last autumn when he played village mechanic Eddie Mills in the series Born and Bred, due to be screened on BBC1 tomorrow at 8pm.

He enjoyed his trip back in time to the 1950s to play a comic character -- a "loveable idiot", Samuel labels him -- who has a lovestruck admirer, Jean, played by Naomi Radcliffe.

Naomi is another soap favourite, having won viewers' hearts as Kevin Webster's second wife Alison in Coronation Street. Her baby died in hospital as she cradled it in her arms, resulting in her killing herself by running into the path of a lorry.

Samuel was in awe of his fellow cast members when he arrived for the read-through of the script -- Born and Bred stars veteran actor James Bolam (Terry in The Likely Lads), former EastEnders star Michael French and Clive Swift, best known as long-suffering Richard, husband of Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances.

There are guest appearances during the series from Roger Lloyd Pack (Only Fools and Horses, Vicar of Dibley) and Denise Welch (Natalie Barnes from Coronation Street).

"I just sat there looking round and thinking 'what am I doing here?'," he said. "I was working with some fantastic people. You can learn so much from actors like James Bolam."

The six-part family drama is set in the fictional Lancashire village of Ormston but was filmed in Downham, Rawtenstall and in Haworth in Yorkshire. Bolam plays Arthur Gilder, who has lived in the village all his life and wants to hand over the reins of his GP practice to his son, Tom (Michael French, who played David Wicks in EastEnders).

Set in the 1950s, it has more of a post-war-Britain feel than ITV's Heartbeat, which has Sixties music threaded through each episode. Born and Bred was originally titled Heart of the Valley but Samuel says its style and content is very different from the series starring Nick Berry, set in North Yorkshire. Coincidentally, Berry played French's screen brother Simon Wicks in EastEnders.

"Born and Bred is like an Ealing production -- it's perfect Sunday night viewing," Samuel said. "Naomi, who plays hapless rag-and-bone lady Jean, likes my character Eddie but he is too dim to realise it. That's second nature to me!

"Helen (Charlotte Salt), who is Tom's teenage daughter, likes Eddie but she has to wait for him to approach her."

The villagers in Downham, said Samuel, were very welcoming to the actors and BBC crew despite them taking over the narrow streets and country lanes for nearly four months. "They were fantastic and didn't complain," he said. "I remember one scene where we had to light up the whole village with moonlight and we hired huge overhead lights. It was a fantastic process, the best work I have ever done -- I can't wait to see it on screen."

Villagers in the picture-postcard community are now waiting to gauge the programme's impact on visitor numbers.

But one former villager is hoping its screening will increase awareness of her new book. By coincidence Anne Musson, who now lives in Clitheroe, was writing a book before the crew's arrival about the village where she grew up. My Beloved Downham, A Childhood Memory, contains a host of memories and pictures from the era recreated by Born and Bred.

The book (£7.50) is available from Clitheroe Library, Whalley Abbey and tourist information centres in the Ribble Valley. It can also be obtained from Anne on 01200 425681 (£1.50 postage if applicable).