A businessman is to appear in a controversial drama about the relationship between prison campaigner Lord Longford and infamous Moors Murderer Myra Hindley.

Part-time actor Tim Wyatt, 53, plays a television reporter and radio broadcaster in forthcoming Channel 4 TV film, Longford.

The 90-minute production stars Oscar-winning actor Jim Broadbent as Lord Longford, the devout Roman Catholic peer who campaigned for child killer Hindley to be released from prison.

Mr Wyatt spent two days in Manchester filming his cameo roles but did not meet Broadbent or the film's other star, Samantha Morton, who plays Hindley. "The whole process is quite dislocated and you very often film separately from the other actors," he said.

Mr Wyatt is also set to appear in a second drama on the Moors Murders.

In Granada production See No Evil, to be premiered later this year, he plays Hindley's father.

After first treading the boards with Bingley Little Theatre in the 1960s, Mr Wyatt, a former T&A reporter, has since combined acting with successful careers in media, film production and business.

As a Manchester-based television reporter he interviewed Winnie Johnson, mother of Moors Murder victim Keith Bennett and disagrees with the view that Hindley should have been released.

"I think it was completely right that she was never released," he said.

"You have only got to listen to some of the surviving relatives to see that. I interviewed Winnie Johnson, mother of Moors Murder victim Keith Bennett. One of the issues that was foremost was that Brady and Hindley would never say where the bodies were buried.

"I actually covered the story when Brady was taken up to Saddleworth Moor but they still could not find the bodies. In 1966 I would have been 13 and I remember the cases quite well. The words Brady and Hindley have come to personify evil."

Mr Wyatt, who featured as a butler in an ITV production of The Forsythe Saga, said despite relative success on the small screen, he is not tempted to turn to acting full-time. He said: "I do find it enjoyable but it would not be something I would want to do as a full time career."

Mr Wyatt, of Five Rise Locks, Bingley, recently launched Fortescue-Carruthers and Co, a clothing company specialising in English tailoring.

Longford will premiere on Channel 4 later this year at a date yet to be announced.