A crew from the BBC's Omnibus programme followed 10 Gaskell Society members to Brook Street Chapel, the Royal George Hotel and Heathwaite, the author's home in Gaskell Avenue.

The December 6 screening of the hour-long documentary will coincide with the start of a BBC drama production of Wives and Daughters, one of Mrs Gaskell's Knutsford-based novels.

"We had a very hectic few days," said society secretary Joan Leach.

"It's a slow process with an awful lot of standing around. Whatever they've done, they've done thoroughly."

Mrs Leach, an advisor to the programme, and the society members also joined the film crew for visits to Mrs Gaskell's old haunts in Manchester, Wales and the Lake District - making the journey on a 1950s' bus.

And in September the 10 members and the producers will fly to Rome to investigate the writer's stay among the city's artistic set - her last visit abroad.

Yesterday (Tuesday) Mrs Leach said the programme was not just a biography but a serious study of her work with contributions from academics and writers such as Margaret Drabble.

"It concentrates very much on her writing and her independence," she said.

The crew plan to return to Knutsford to shoot more scenes, with the possibilty of asking the society to re-enact the lavish Gaskell Ball, last held in 1960, for the camera.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.