WHEN a policeman handed out a parking ticket in a sleepy Yorkshire Dales village, he would not have expected the event to be recounted on national television.

But a comic poem, penned by entertainer Richard Digance after the £30 penalty was slapped on his car in East Witton, near Middleham, will feature on the Countdown word game show on Monday.

Mr Digance - a regular in the programme's Dictionary Corner - was among guests at a 60th birthday party given by show host Richard Whiteley, who lives in the village.

He returned to his car, parked near the green, the following morning to discover the ticket on his windscreen - with a spelling mistake which inspired the tongue-in-cheek poem.

"It's a very funny poem and Richard Digance recited it during the recording of next week's programme about five weeks ago," said Mr Whiteley. "One or two people at the party got tickets. They were apparently causing an unnecessary obstruction, but the officer who issued it couldn't spell, which was of course noted by our dictionary expert."

The poem ends: "Williams TC 1334, you cost me 30 quid, revenge is sweet it is true

"You took the Mick out of me on that night, so now I'm taking the Mick out of you.

"I'm gonna give you one word of advice, and then the hatchet I'll bury,

"Don't apply to come on Countdwn young man until you learn to spell unnecessary."

The programme is broadcast on Channel 4 on Monday, 3.15.