A DALES bus service made famous by a documentary watched by more than 900,000 people last year faces the axe if sufficient funding can not be found.

The Northern Dalesman, a rural bus service which was the star of television’s All Aboard! The Country Bus could be cut unless funds can be found to fill the gap between the cost of providing the service and income generated from ticket sales.

The charity which runs the service has turned to Just Giving in the hope of attracting donations from people who use the service, and others who can appreciate its importance.

Its sister service, the Wensleydale Flyer, was recently saved after a stairlift firm stepped in to offer sponsorship.

It now has enough cash to keep running throughout 2017 after launching an appeal .

The BBC4 film about slow travel through great landscapes attracted nearly a million viewers in 2016.

All Aboard! The Country Bus aired on Bank Holiday Monday, August 31, and at its peak 973,000 people were watching the BBC4 show that followed the bus on its service from Richmond to Ingleton.

Mounted cameras captured scenes on the bus’s 40-mile route, passing through the Swaledale villages of Grinton, Reeth, Gunnerside, Muker and Keld, before travelling over the Buttertubs Pass to Hawes and then on to Ribblehead and Ingleton.

The cameras also eavesdropped on chats between passengers, while captions detailing facts about the area were displayed.

The ‘slow TV’ phenomenon was triggered by a Norwegian broadcaster screening a voyage around the country’s fjords.

Colin Speakman, vice president of the Yorkshire Dales Society and managing director of the society's volunteer-run subsidy, Dales and Bowland Community Interest Company, said: “This is not any ordinary bus service."

“This is about a means of access to some of the most beautiful countryside in the whole of England, through the heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park including Swaledale and the Yorkshire Three Peaks.

"It is important for visitors, especially those staying in the area, and it is important for local people because it also brings business into the area.

"But it is especially important to the many thousands of people living in the towns and cities of the North East – Middlesbrough, Stockton, Darlington – without access to a car, who will find it difficult if not impossible to have a day out in the National Park if the Northern Dalesman does not run."

He added: "Good public transport gives many people their independence, and freedom to explore. A day out in the Dales is a wonderful antidote for loneliness and isolation, with guided walks available to welcome people to the National Park and share an understanding of its culture and landscape."

But because of public sector funding cuts, conservation groups such as the Yorkshire Dales Society are having to work with partners to raise sufficient funds to enable the bus to operate again in summer 2017.

Thanks to a generous anonymous donation, some funds have been raised, but a gap of £3,000 remains.

To donate visit www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/yorkshiredales-society/NorthernDalesman2017.

Visit www.dalesbus.org.