Popular BBC drama The A Word featured Penrith town centre this week, with a long serving family business in the limelight.

Penrith’s town centre provided the setting for an episode of the popular drama broadcast on BBC One on Tuesday.

The drama stars famous character actor Christopher Eccleston who has also played the title role in Doctor Who.

Eccleston’s character Maurice Scott paid a visit to N Arnison & Sons Limited, a tailoring shop on Devonshire Street in the episode.

Shots exhibited Penrith’s town centre, including the shopping arcade, the Woolpack Inn pub as well as James & John Graham’s Family Grocers.

A scene from the episode saw Eccleston’s character inside the N Arnison & Sons store.

Co-owner Nigel Scott said that it was exciting to see the business, which has been in his family since 1841, on the small screen.

“Anything like that makes you feel proud.

"It’s just nice to be asked, all the cast and crew were friendly, they were brilliant. They bought quite a lot of our stock as well.”

Nigel runs the business, first established in 1742, with his brother Tim, they are the seventh generation.

It was especially exciting for Nigel to see the tailoring shop featured on The A Word episode, which was originally filmed in Penrith last year, because he is a fan.

“I’ve watched all of this series, I’ve found this series particularly interesting.”

Nigel added that it was strange to see the shop busy on the episode as it was filmed before the coronavirus lockdown.

“There was quite a lot of people there, machinery, cameras and lighting equipment."

He said: “We’ve been closed since the end of March. We’re hopefully going to reopen on the 15th of June like everyone else and get back to some kind of normality although you know it’s not really going to be normality.”

A spokesperson for Eden District Council's tourism team said: "We are very pleased that some of the filming of the A Word has taken place in Penrith and the surrounding area.

"Although visitors are not yet able to come and stay overnight in Eden currently, the images of the town and countryside will remind people what a beautiful area this is.

"We know how popular ‘film tourism’ has been and its ability to attract new visitors to the area and we look forward to welcoming people back."