The actor, who plays vicar Ashley Thomas in the ITV soap, was in the town on Wednesday, filming scenes for a new ITV series called Lights, Camera, Location, which will be shown in September.

The series highlights locations in the north which have been used in a film or television programme.

The producers had filmed in Goathland, where Heartbeat is based, earlier in the year and before meeting Mr Taylor had interviewed Harry Collett, chairman of Whitby and District Tourism Association.

Mr Middleton told the Whitby Gazette he was enjoying finding out more about the region.

He said: "We have been to about 20 different locations and I have been fitting in filming around my day job.

"I have really enjoyed it and being in Whitby is always nice.

"I'm from Whitley Bay and we used to come here sometimes when I was a child.

"You only have to look around to realise why it makes for such a great location."

Other places the crew had visited included Scarborough and Redcar beach, which was used in the hit film Atonement and the set of Brideshead Revisited.

Mr Taylor, author of the Shadowmancer series, gave Mr Middleton the lowdown on Dracula and Whitby when the pair met at St Mary's Church.

Mr Taylor said: "Whitby is a great location and it has everything that is why I am going to base all my books here."

A film of Shadowmancer is currently in production and he has resisted attempts to move the location of the story.

"The script went off and it came back looking nothing like the story and it was set on the east coast of America and I said 'hang on try again, it's set in Whitby' so it's being re-written."

Lights, Camera, Location will be screened on Sunday afternoons from September.