BOLTON will make another of its increasingly frequent television appearances in a new BBC drama that begins tomorrow.

Scenes for Years and Years were shot in Le Mans Crescent and Odessa Cafe in Exchange Street in March.

The show ­— written by Russel T. Davies the brain behind Queer As Folk, and writer of Doctor Who and Torchwood ­— follows the lives of the Lyons family from Manchester over 15 years as they face political, economic and technological advances.

Dame Emma Thompson will lead the cast as Vivienne Rook, with Jessica Hynes, Rory Kinnear, Ruth Madeley, T’Nia Miller, Anne Reid and Russell Tovey appearing as the Lyons family.

One man who will be watching the series with particular attention is Odessa Cafe owner, Alex McVey.

He said: “They spent an afternoon filming here and it was interesting to watch.

“I was hoping that I might be in the background as an extra but they brought their own.”

Actress T’Nia Miller, who plays Celeste Bisme-Lyons, filmed some of her scenes in the cafe.

Explaining the appeal of the series, she said: “The characters are very relatable, there’s a political undercurrent which is holding a mirror up to where we’re at now and where we’re going, but the characters are very personable and funny.”

Praising writer Russel T. Davies, Dame Emma said: “His writing is absolutely the level of George Orwell. It’s extraordinary, the way in which he’s imagined the future of our relationship with AI, and it has so many shades of all the best science fiction writing.”

Bolton will be appearing on television screens again later this year when Netflix drama The Stranger, which was filming in Le Mans Crescent last week, and Sky TV’s thriller, Cobra, hit the screens.

For Cobra, which stars Trainspotting and Hamish Macbeth actor Robert Carlyle, the former BHS store in Victoria Square was transformed into a hospital for scenes set in the aftermath of a plane crash.

In the winter, series two of the detective drama Bancroft, starring Sarah Parish also saw film crews in town.

The first first episode of Years and Years will be screened on Tuesday at 9pm on BBC1. Each of the six one-hour episodes will move forward in time by two years.