THE TELLY COMES TO TOWN AS THE RUSSELL T DAVIES PENNED AIDS DRAMA SET IN THE 80S STARTS FILMING IN ECCLES

Eccles seems to be up there with Hollywood and New York when it comes to filming locations these days, with TV food trucks and film stars caravans becoming a regular sight on the local Morrisons car park.

As we reported on our 27.5 thousand strong SalfordOnline Facebook group on Thursday of last week, this latest production to come to EcclesWood is rumoured to star none other than national treasure Keeley Hawes of Ashes to Ashes and more recently Bodyguard fame - whose IMDB pages states that she is currently filming a production called Finding Alice in which she plays the titular character but we have heard that it is another show 'Channel 4's - The Boys' that she is linked to. The production written by Russel T Davies of Dr Who fame also stars cunning linguist and brain box Stephen Fry, Neil Patrick Harris, Tracey Ann Oberman and Shaun Dooley. With the unhealthy amount of time our very own Tony Flynn has been spending on there recently there is a good change it could star him too.

Originally given the working tile of 'The Boys' the production had to change name after the title was used by another show which airs on Amazon Prime Video, the show will explore the lives of three young gay men affected by the AIDS crisis of the 1980s in a new Channel 4 series. It is likely to air in the Summer of 2020 according to Davies.

The show has recently finished filming scenes in Bolton.

Hilariously someone has even mention that they have seen comedy legend Danny Devito in Morrison's although we have since completely ruled that out on the grounds that Danny still has his job at Tesco.

As part of the set, three 'spoof' businesses were seen being festooned with new facades last week, the first seems to be an 80's themed TV shop named Billingham TV Rentals, the window display featuring the top tech of the time, hotpoint washing machines, cathode ray tube telly's and VHS and Betamax video recorders, the kind you had to hit with a hammer to get the play button to go down.

Another is a Printalux who I swear once advertised on SalfordOnline before it closed (I will have to check), the garb in the window advertises printing suplies and services, letterheads, menus and invoices.

The final shop being Frobisher which appears to be in the stages of early opening with white washed windows and a coming soon sign in the window. The shop being used is the Clinton's Card shop which we are told will be back one again once filming has ended.

A source tells us that exterior shots were used showing an unnamed actor rolling up the shutters on one of the adapted shopping units.

We were also told that the rest of the filming will all be interior shots so good luck with celebrity spotting.

Obviously though as this is Eccles after all, the staring role will always go to the now famous Christmas Tree.

Filming is expected to last until weekend.

Photos: SM (Courtesty of Tony Flynn) and Google Images.