ITV series filmed at Wigan beauty spot to air later this month

Passenger will be available on ITV and ITVX later this month.

The six-part comedy horror series was partly shot in Haigh Hall, turning its plantations in to a wintry scene.

It comes from the pen of actor Andrew Buchan - best known for his roles in Broadchurch, Garrow’s Law and BBC hit Better – who is making his debut as a screenwriter.

Among its stars are Bafta award-winning actress Wunmi Mosaku, screen veteran David Threlfall and Call the Midwife actress Ella Bruccoleri.

It will also feature a cameo from Wigan actress Pam Shaw who sadly died last month following a short illness.

Parts of the lower plantations were sealed off to the public in March last year and, while the white stuff is a rare sight in Wigan, an artificial version of it was liberally sprayed around the woodland.

Passenger is set in the small Northern English village of Chadder Vale, where a close-knit community is sent reeling following a series of strange and unnatural crimes.

After arriving there five years ago, former Met Police detective Riya Ajunwa (Mosaku) has been searching for a challenge that will make her feel alive again, which she is handed when a local girl is mysteriously abducted.

Her car is found abandoned and there are traces of blood on the seats. But the village barely has time to register the disappearance before she reappears the next day, safe and sound.

The rest of the villagers ask few questions and life resumes as normal. But for Riya, a relative outsider to the Chadder Vale way of life, none of this sits right.

As a series of strange happenings and increasingly horrific crimes start unfolding within the village, the residents start resorting to short-sighted theories and blaming outside influences. Riya fights hard to convince the villagers that all is not as it seems. And before long she is drawn into a universe unlike anything she has ever seen.

This isn’t the first time Haigh Woodland Park and the hall have been used for film and television. It regularly appears in the hit Channel 4 comedy Brassic and also featured in the 1988 Ben Kingsley movie Testimony.