GRANADA'S major drama for the New Year has been filmed almost entirely in Rossendale and the stars Caroline Quentin and Paul McGann have praised the area as "beautiful."

A school, chip shop, housing estate and park are just a few of the venues around the borough that have been used for the shooting of the epic Blood Strangers.

Production crews have been in the area, and also Accrington and Todmorden, for the past seven weeks and part of the drama involved a council house in Hawthorn Road being 'set on fire'.

A spokesman for Granada said: "We have not got the schedule yet but we are expecting it to be shown early in the New Year.

"The drama is a one-off and will not have any follow-ups or sequels and will be shown in two 90-minute episodes."

It is written by award winning former East Lancashire author Gwyneth Hughes, who now lives in Yorkshire. She is best known for Silent Witness, starring starring Amanda Burton.

She selected Rossendale as the location for the filming because she already knew the area. The spokesman continued: "I have seen some of the drama and the area looks beautiful. We had a lot of people coming up to us while we were filming and they were very interested in what we were doing.

"The cast absolutely loved it and Caroline and Paul both said they thought it was a beautiful area. You really do see a lot of locations in the area and it is a nice way of showing the area to people."

It begins on location in Lancashire and tells the tale of Lin Beresford and her two children who live happily in a picturesque town until Lin receives news that her 14-year-old daughter Emma has been found dead.

She then discovers her daughter was working as a prostitute and, unable to accept what has happened, Lin begins a search for the truth that ultimately brings her face-to-face with her daughter's killer.

Rossendale has already been the venue for many TV productions including an episode of Cracker which was centred around the East Lancashire Railway. TV amateur sleuth Hetty Wainthrop, was filmed in locations around the Valley as well as being based in Darwen and drama Woken Well was filmed in Water village.