Why have film crews, snow and famous actors been spied at a Wigan beauty spot?

In fact it’s because a section of the plantations are being used as wintry scenery in a major new comedy horror series being shot for ITV.

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

Called Passenger, the six-parter is being produced by the award-winning Sister for ITVX, ITV and BritBox International.

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

Parts of the lower plantations have been sealed off to the public and, while the white stuff has been a rare sight in Wigan this season, anrtificial version of it has been liberally sprayed around the woodland while location filming continues until March 4. (The programme-makers say that no harm will come to the environment, by the way).

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.

Mr Buchan said: “I’m unbelievably thrilled to be working with Sister, ITV and BritBox International. I feel very lucky and very flattered they’ve gone with these scripts and I’m going to work my backside off to make them the best they can be.

"I’ve always loved shows where the known collides with the unknown … where you see communities faced with something horrifying and inexplicable, where, as a viewer, you’ve nothing in your kit-bag to explain it. When I started writing the scripts, I wanted to create something epic and unknown but also bed it somewhere close to home.

"Having grown up in Lancashire it felt like the perfect place for it. We’ll definitely see the residents of Chadder Vale pushed to their limits.”

The drama will be an ITVX premiere, exclusive to ITV's new free streaming service many months ahead of transmission on an ITV main channel.

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.