TV star Alan Davies was at Hunterston estate filming scenes for a Christmas comeback special of the hit BBC drama Jonathan Creek earlier this year. 

The eagerly anticipated programme is on Wednesday evening on BBC1

Film crews were based within Hunterston Estate and castle grounds filming, and over the years, the estate has been used for a number of television productions.

BBC film crews were also at the disused Valley Park business estate off Inverkip Road, formerly Spango Valley, in Greenock, filming the new episode which guest stars Star Wars and Harry Potter actor Warwick Davis who was also spotted in the local area at Seamill Hydro.

The BBC announced last week that Jonathan Creek, created by writer and One Foot in the Grave creator David Renwick, is to return in 2017 for a one-off special after a two-year absence from TV screens. The 90-minute episode will mark the 20th anniversary since the programme's launch.

Leading man Alan said: “Jonathan finds himself in real danger, it’s the spookiest episode ever.”

Hunterston Castle grounds provides a historic setting and has already featured as a location for a BBC television drama based on the true story of author James Herriot of 'All Creatures Great and Small' in 2011..

The episode entitled 'Daemons' Roost' centres around the following plot: "According to legend, a 19th century sorcerer named Jacob Surtees would summon the powers of Hell to terrorise and subjugate his victims at his home, Daemons’ Roost.

"A hundred and fifty years after his death the house is occupied by another, equally macabre, figure: veteran horror film director Nathan Clore. With his health now failing he has summoned home his stepdaughter Alison, to share with her the chilling truth of what happened to her family there.

"However, just days before her arrival Nathan Clore has suffered a debilitating stroke, rendering him terribly paralysed and unable to communicate the very truth that she has come to learn.

"After assisting Alison’s husband in the past, Jonathan Creek is called upon to help again but as the story unfolds, with ever more sinister twists and turns, the gruesome rituals that were once enacted in the dungeon of Daemons’ Roost are frighteningly revived with horrifying consequences."

Hunterston Estate has a long history for location shoots for television productions, and in 1999, the musician Fish ' played "Derek Trout", a record producer in the 1999 series, "The Young Person's Guide To Becoming A Rock Star" on Channel Four.

The C4 show hit the national headlines after actors left a script behind at their hotel - the former Elderslie - and guests were able to read about the programme before it was broadcast.