A STELLAR cast has been filming a new BBC Two drama at a stately home in Northwich.

Arley Hall and Gardens has this week been home to a production company working on award-winning director Stephen Poliakoff's new six-part drama 'Close to the Enemy', which will air next year.

Mainly set in a bomb-damaged London hotel in the aftermath of the Second World War, the compelling drama centres on a British intelligence officer whose task is to ensure a captured German scientist helps the RAF develop a jet engine.

It will star Jim Sturgess, Freddie Highmore, Charlotte Riley, Phoebe Fox, August Diehl, Robert Glenister, Alfie Allen, Charity Wakefield, Angela Bassett, Lindsay Duncan and Alfred Molina.

Steve Hamilton, general manager of Arley Hall, said: "To have a Stephen Poliakoff drama and actors of the calibre of Alfred Molina, Angela Bassett and Jim Sturgess here is great.

"The exciting thing for me and all the staff is that this production company has been really inclusive and let staff and the public, if they've been at the hall, watch.

"They were filming a cricket match in the park and if people wanted to watch it happen they could.

"Angela Bassett was in the drawing room on Friday singing in a party scene – to stand there and watch these great actors, watching her sing live was just incredible.

"You don't get an opportunity like that very often."

Steve said that although some of the interior sets were built by the production company, the exterior is undeniably Arley Hall.

"It will obviously be Arley Hall because of the external scenes like the cricket and they've been filming in the lime avenue up to the clock," he said "Arley Hall features in four of the six episodes.

"While it won't necessarily bring hundreds of thousands of people here this year, it might next year when it's out and people are talking about it."

Arley Hall is a popular location for filmmakers, with ITV's Coronation Street and Disney's Evermoor among the list of dramas shot in its picturesque grounds.