THREE East Lancashire arm wrestlers will spend each weekend hob-nobbing with the stars after landing leading roles on a primetime TV show.

Reigning British champion Neil Pickup, world number two Andy Barker and current Arm Wars winner Michael Holland have been signed up for the Saturday National Lottery Red Alert show at 7.20pm on BBC 1.

Neil, 26, and Michael, 24, who both live on Blackburn's Oakdale Estate, have already filmed tomorrow night's show.

Andy, 22, who lives in Hoddlesden, was competing at the time but looking forward to taking up his role this weekend.

Andy, who works for Senator International in Altham Industrial Estate, said: "The show involves two teams of people, one from a street in the north and one from a street in the south.

"They battle it out by answering questions in a quiz and at the end one of the men from each team arm wrestle.

"Neil is on the show as referee while I am involved in coaching the men and Michael is also involved in a technical role."

Neil, a sales manager for a company based in Leeds, went on: "It's brilliant but it's a bit surreal at the moment. When I was down there at the weekend I met Lulu, who presents the show, as well stars like Mick Hucknall and Stephen Hendry.

"We've been signed up for the next eight weeks so I'm looking forward to seeing lots of bands, though it is going to be great to help raise the profile of arm wrestling as well."

Pictured, from the left, are Andy Barker, Neil Pickup and Michael Holland.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.