IT is now 25 years since TV audiences first saw a controversial drama partly filmed on the outskirts of Millom.

The seven-part Channel 4 show was called GBH – standing for Great British Holiday rather than the usual grievous bodily harm.

Location filming was spread over three weeks at Brockwood Park in the Whicham Valley.

One of the stars was Michael Palin, who was pictured by the Evening Mail in Ulverston carrying a brolly and bags in September 1990.

He was based in the town during film for the show, written by Alan Bleasdale.

Palin played a primary school headteacher Jim Nelson who found himself the target of left-wing militants out to force his resignation.

Extenal shots of the school shown in the TV series were filmed at Lostock County Primary School in Bolton.

Palin’s arch enemy in the show is council leader Michael Murray played by Robert Lindsay.

The Evening Mail on June 1 in 1991 noted: “A major TV drama filmed near Millom comes to the screens this week.

“It is GBH by Alan Bleasdale, author of the controversial Boys from the Blackstuff and the Monocled Mutineer.

“Bleasdale describes it as an epic and sometimes hilarious story of power and madness as it affects the lives of two men.”

During filming, Palin stayed at Trinity House Hotel in Ulverston.

He told the Evening Mail: “Filming is quite demanding – a lot of hanging about – inertia broken by violent periods of heavy, concentrated activity.”

The filming was held on six days each week but did give the actor time to visit Swarthmoor Hall, watch the Ulverston lantern procession and go on runs over Birkrigg Common.

The actor was to return to Ulverston in 1994 with a group of celebrities, including record producer Peter Waterman, to promote the Lake District for travel journalists.