THE Lancashire Telegraph website made a guest appearance in John Simm’s new TV drama.

In Exile, a three-part series which concluded last night, Simm played a London-based journalist who returns to his Lancashire hometown to find his father in the grip of Alzheimer's.

While investigating the reasons behind them becoming estranged years earlier, Simm looks through archive material on a mock-up of the Lancashire Telegraph’s website, renamed The Bacup News.

It isn’t the first East Lancashire link on the show.

Burnley-born Paul Abbott, who wrote the programme, used his hometown as an inspiration.

He said: “My grandma had Alzheimer's. I remember driving...and there was a news bulletin which said two pensioners had caused a riot in a working men's club in Burnley - that was my gran, Lilly Law, and they were both 88.

“It is desperate that people can get to that bit in their memory that is only clear fleetingly, that they won't remember again until something happens to trigger it.”

Simm grew up in Nelson and went to the former Edge End High School.

Much of the filming took place in Rossendale while other scenes were filmed outside our sister paper The Bolton News’ office.

A sign for the fictional Lancashire Evening News was erected on the door.