STARS of the screen are to descend on a North Yorkshire village while filming for a national TV production next week.

Hollywood actress Alex Kingston, of ER and Without A Trace fame, will be among the stars filming in Nun Monkton for ITV's forthcoming modern adaptation of the Jane Austen novel Pride And Prejudice.

The programme, Lost In Austen, will tell the story of a modern-day heroine who gets the chance to swap lives with a Jane Austen character and live her life in Georgian Britain.

Charles Ashby, a parish councillor at Nun Monkton, said he was delighted the programme-makers had picked the village.

He said: "We are very pleased indeed that they have chosen our village. It will be a brief inconvenience for the day but we've had no complaints."

James Mackman, clerk to the parish council said: "The locations manager from the programme came down to the village green and discussed his plans with myself and Coun Ashby. He was very obliging to our concerns to protect the green."

"The alterations and disguises they are adding to the green are really quite clever and I'm sure on the day there will be crowds of people watching the filming."

In the programme, Amanda Price - played by Jemima Rooper - discovers the Pride And Prejudice character Elizabeth Bennet (Gemma Arteton) living in her bathroom, and the pair take the opportunity to trade places and take centre stage in the celebrated love story.

The production will feature Alex Kingston as Mrs Bennet; Hugh Bonneville as Bennet; and Lindsay Duncan as Lady Catherine. Mr Darcy will be played by newcomer Elliot Cowen.

Sally Haynes, controller of drama commissioning for ITV, said: "Lost In Austen has the high production values of period drama.

"Its sumptuous period locations, costume, carriages and props are juxtaposed with Amanda Price's very modern lifestyle.

"The cleverness of the script will appeal to Austen aficionados and it will also attract a new audience to this beautiful love story."

The programme, which is made up of four one-hour episodes, is being shot entirely in Yorkshire and is due to be screened early next year Nun Monkton is used to the limelight after being featured in several TV costume dramas and an episode of The Darling Buds Of May over the years.

The filming will take place on the village green in Nun Monkton, on Monday, between 7.30am and 3pm.