Filming has just finished for the second series, which is set in the fictional Norfolk town of Market Shipborough, based in Swaffham but boasting a coastline and a beach.

More than 1,000 local people have become involved in the filming, including Tony Ellis, who is among the audience at a cricket match.

Mr Ellis, a cricket devotee of long standing, saw the actors get rather more than they bargained for when a cricket ball spun out of control – a sequence we suspect won’t make it onto the screen.

Visitors to Swaffham have reportedly been bemused by the fact that the beach is some 25 miles away and the town is planning a special Bank Holiday beach party event next year to keep them happy.

The series has ploughed almost £2.5 million into the local economy and tourism chiefs say it has boosted tourism as well.

More than six million people watched the first series, and filming for a third has been tentatively pencilled in for 2008.