TOP singing stars from the North-East will highlight the region's contribution to the music scene in a new Tyne Tees Television series.

The six-part Northstars, part of the winter programme line-up, features exclusive interviews with stars including Bryan Ferry, Eric Burdon, Mark Knopfler, Bruce Welch and Hank Marvin.

However, two of the region's biggest musical names, Sting and Jimmy Nail, will be missing as work commitments ruled out doing interviews with the programme-makers.

The season of regional programmes include Amazing Babies, telling the stories of 12 families and their amazing offspring, and The Whole Nine Yards, in which gardener Simon Cross transforms nine different back yards.

The Crew follows a dozen youngsters from the North-East and Yorkshire as they set sail on the 70ft sailing ketch James Cook for a North Sea voyage. They include Michael Bowley, a trainee bosun who works at McDonald's, in Cramlington, Northumberland and Wendy Podd, a youth worker from Sunderland.

Body Talk looks at the human body - a different body part each week - in a way it has never been explored before.

Returning series include Wild North, with new presenter Kim Inglis, and Out Of Town, with Eric Robson and his border terrier, Raq.

Writer and broadcaster John Grundy is back to cast a critical eye over the region's building in Grundy's Wonders. Each week he will name a building he says should be demolished under the Great Boot of History. Darlington and Stockton are featured in the Pam Royle-presented series Your Town On The Telly.

Controller of programmes Graeme Thompson said that Tyne Tees regional programmes in the "difficult" 7.30pm slot against BBC1's EastEnders were performing better than the national average ratings-wise. And Mike Neville's nightly regional magazine programme North-East Tonight was among the top three or four of its kind in the country.

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