FORMER mill town Bolton is to double as leafy, academic Oxford, and modern Horwich will be transformed into historic Harrogate as part of filming for a hit BBC drama.

More details have been released about how various locations will be the star of the small screen in Last Tango In Halifax.

Bolton Council has already approved the temporary closure of Mansell Way, Aspinall Way and Aspinall Close in Middlebrook Retail and Leisure Park on Sunday so a scene involving a car crash can be staged on camera for the two-part Christmas special.

It has emerged that the filmmakers, Red Production Company, will be hitting the streets in the coming days for more recording.

A spokesman for the production company said: "On Wednesday, there will be exterior scenes filming in Bolton but set in Oxford.

"Then exterior and interior scenes filming in Farnworth, set in Huddersfield."

The following day interior scenes will be shot in an unspecified part of the borough that are supposed to represent Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and at a café doubling for Sowerby Bridge near Halifax in West Yorkshire.

The spokesman added: "They will all be for the Christmas two-part special."

It will not be Bolton's first brush with television fame.

Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights was filmed at St Gregory's Social Club in Church Street, Farnworth, while mid-1990s children's drama Children's Ward used Royal Bolton Royal Hospital for outdoor scenes.

Comedy movie All In Good Time, released in 2012, was partly shot in Deane, around Spa Road, as well as in Victoria Square and in Bolton Library in the town centre.

Two years ago, actors and production staff descended on Rivington Pike and Horwich to film parts of A Monster Calls, starring Schindler's List and Taken actor Liam Neeson and Alien series star Sigourney Weaver. The horror movie is due for release this year.