TV show raises hopes for tourist boom (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

More than four million tune in for The Dales

11:15am Wednesday 30th March 2011 in The Dales

The first episode of new TV series The Dales pulled in more than four million viewers this week.

The programme, presented by Bradford-born Adrian Edmondson, follows some of the people living and working in the Dales, including 16-year-old Philip Mellin and his mother Carol who run a farm in Oakworth.

Welcome to Yorkshire, which was involved in the making of the series, hopes it will spark a boom in tourism to the Dales this summer and has created a website, yorkshire.com/thedales, which yesterday had 2,600 hits.

Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “This is a phenomenal success with our stunning Yorkshire Dales being beamed into the homes of 4.4 million viewers across the nation.

“We’ve created a special website for the programme which shows who and where is featured in the programme. This saw a great spike in hits so we hope that it will lead people to booking a holiday and coming to see our Yorkshire Dales for themselves.”

The Dales is screened on Mondays at 8pm on ITV1