In recent years, Bolton has been something of a filming hotspot for TV crews and has even jokingly been referred to as 'The New Hollywood' in Parliament on one occasion.
Joking aside, the town has played host to some amazing productions including Peaky Blinders, It's a Sin, and smash Netflix thriller The Stranger. Usually the town doubles for somewhere else, with viewers often led to believe that the stunning Le Mans Crescent is London or somewhere else that is very much not in the North West.
So it has been incredibly refreshing to watch BBC horror drama Red Rose - a show not only filmed in Bolton but set in the town as well. It is perhaps unsurprising, therefore, that the show's writers - Michael and Paul Clarkson - are proud Boltonians.
READ MORE : 8 top TV shows where Bolton has doubled for somewhere else
The pair described Red Rose as "a love letter to our hometown" and it certainly shows. The first episode alone goes from gorgeous shots of the moors, off Scout Road, to teenagers leaving Ye Olde Pastie Shoppe and walking past Ye Olde Man and Scythe in the town centre.
Characters make direct references to Carrs Pasties, Smithills Hall and the aforementioned Le Mans Crescent, while even the fictional places such as Crompton Park and Heartgrieves School are nods to the town - with the park named after Bolton-born inventor Samuel Crompton and Heartgrieves being a play on words on the motto of the Clarksons' former school Thornleigh Salesian College.
The fact that it will eventually be released to an international audience on Netflix and American audiences will discover places that are so familiar to me, as someone who grew up in Farnworth, and so many others is an extremely surreal thought.
It's right to say that one of my favourite sitcoms of all time - Phoenix Nights - is set in the town, as is Sophie Willan's brilliant Alma's Not Normal. These do both make references to Bolton throughout, but for whatever reason, the location does not seem quite as central to the story as it is in Red Rose.
The Clarkson twins have already written and produced on huge Netflix shows such as The Haunting of Bly Manor and were working in Los Angeles prior to production beginning on Red Rose. There was no real reason for them to set the show in Bolton other than the fact that they clearly have a massive love for the area.
It helps that it's just bloody good as well. I binged the final six of the eight episodes in one sitting, having watched the first two the night before.
I'm not the first reviewer to say this but possibly the biggest compliment that I can pay the series is that watches like a cross between Black Mirror and Derry Girls. In parts, it is genuinely scary and unsettling, but the teenage friendship group at the centre of the plot are genuinely likeable and relatable with cast members Amelia Clarkson, Isis Hainsworth, Natalie Blair, Ellis Howard, Ali Khan, and Harry Redding all having brilliant on-screen chemistry.
Twists, turns and red herrings keep the audience guessing and I think that it will be well received by audiences outside of the UK, even if they may need subtitles to work out the Boltonian accents.
Depending how successful it becomes, I wouldn't be surprised to see a second series, even though I think it works better as a standalone. Whatever the future of the show, I'm looking forward to seeing what the Clarkson twins do next and I hope it isn't the last time that they bring a production home.
Episode three of Red Rose will air on BBC Three at 10am on Monday August 23. Alternatively, you can watch the whole series now on BBC iPlayer.
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