A BOLTON church will be centre stage on Christmas Day when it becomes home to a BBC television crew for the morning.

It'll be lights, camera, action at St Peter's CE Church, on Church Road, Halliwell, as crews film the parish's Christmas morning family service to be shown live as part of BBC 1's No Room at the Inn.

The service will explore the theme of making room for worship in our lives at Christmas

The Reverend Roger Oldfield, said: "We received a telephone call from the BBC to ask if we would be interested in having our family service filmed on Christmas morning. We have taken part in radio shows before, and after consideration we decided we would.

"We are all looking forward to the morning. I'll have to just forget that there will be about 1.3 million people watching."

Associate Minister, Reverend Alison Baillie from the parish will be leading the service, and the Reverend Oldfield will be welcoming parishioners and viewers to the church.

Nigel Swinford, who directs music for Songs of Praise and who worships at St Peter's, will be conducting the musicians and singers of the New English Orchestra and the congregation in carols ancient and modern.

The show will be screened from 10.15am to 11.15am and will reflect the fun and informality of a typical family service, and will have a phone link-up to Israel, drama, music, carols and stories.

And although the programme will talk about making room for God, there won't be enough room for everyone who wants to be at the service to get into St Peter's.

The 350 seats will be filled and the service will be relayed to congregations at St Peter's Parish Centre and Bolton's Central Baptist Church so that everyone who wants to can join in.

Attendance at cathedrals has continued to rise steadily over the past seven years.