Last updated 13:36, Thursday, 25 September 2008

FANS of crime drama may have spotted some familiar faces and places in this week’s televised episode of A Place of Execution.

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Focusing in: The jury in the drama is made up of local extras.

For some of the filming for the three-part series currently showing on ITV1 took place in Hunstanworth, Simonburn and Prudhoe.

And many of the extras in the gripping drama surrounding the disappearance of a young girl in the 1960s, also hailed from Tynedale.

Among them was Courant reporter Rebecca Dixon, getting a behind-the-scenes take on the production of a prime time television show.

A Place of Execution, adapted from Val McDermid's best seller and produced by Coastal Productions, tells the story of how 13-year-old Alison Carter vanished from the insular hamlet of Scardale.

Nearly 40 years after her disappearance a journalist is poised to produce a film about the case, but when the inspector in charge of the original investigation tries to stop her, she’s forced to reinvestigate the past, with shocking results.

For Rebecca, her role in filming for the drama involved an inspired piece of typecasting – she played a reporter during flashbacks to the 1960s.

One of many journalists searching for a scoop on the missing girl, she was writing for the fictional High Peak Courant.

For one scene in which journalists and villagers mob the trial of Philip Hawkin, who is suspected of murdering Alison, Rebecca spent two days filming at the Moot Hall on Newcastle’s Quayside.

In another, Hunstanworth’s village hall was transformed into a 1960s police incident room, while outside the hall car park was jammed with high-tech film and sound equipment, make-up trucks and food wagons for cast and crew.

During filming Rebecca was joined by 70-year-old Tommy Bell, of Hexham, and his wife Jeanette (68).

Tommy, an extra of some experience, having app-eared in Elizabeth the Virgin Queen, Distant Shores and a couple of Catherine Cookson adaptations, was cast as a 1960s villager.

He knows that the work of an extra can be far from glamorous, but still enjoys the thrill of being involved in filming for a television production.

Tommy said: “We went up to Simonburn once it got dark to film the search scenes. We were supposed to be looking for the missing girl, but it was freezing and actually started to snow when we got up there.”

Although the snow looked magical, lit to perfection by lighting technicians, spending three hours in the forest around Simonburn left cast and crew frozen to the bone.

Hexham teenager Jenny Cook also took time out from her studies at Queen Elizabeth High School to take part in filming for the modern day scenes.

She played a nurse at a Newcastle hospital and was accompanied by the high school’s press officer Janice Graham, also playing a nurse.

Janice said: “We took over a ward at South Tyneside Hospital to film parts of the modern day episodes. It was great fun, but long hours.”

Janice, too, has been involved in other productions around the region since attending a castings recruitment drive staged by Lakeside Castings at the Beaumont Hotel in Hexham several years ago.

And it wasn’t just the supporting actors who had local links. Leading man Greg Wise was born in Newcastle, and his father now lives just outside Otterburn.

Greg said: “I’m originally from the North-East so it’s been lovely to be back here.”

Although he left the region a number of years ago, he can still conjure up a local accent when required and added: “It’s wonderful to be able to come back to the area of my birth.

“I think whenever you return to where you grew up it brings back memories that resonate within you.”

Making A Place of Execution a thoroughly local production was household name Robson Green, who found fame in Soldier Soldier and more recently in Wire in the Blood.

He founded Coastal Productions which produced the mini series, the final two episodes of which will be screened on Monday and October 6.

He said: “Twelve years ago my business partner Sandra Jobling and I had an ambition to produce quality drama in the North-East that would sell internationally.

“I am proud to say that I get a real kick out of the fact that Val McDermid has come to a small company like Coastal and allowed us to adapt her work.”