A CAMPAIGN has been launched to save a Dales bus service made famous when it featured on a “slow TV” show watched by almost a million people.

The BBC4 programme All Aboard! The Country Bus, screened last summer, featured real-time footage of the Northern Dalesman bus service 830 as it passed for 40 miles through the Yorkshire Dales landscape.

But the service – which links Middlesbrough, Darlington and Richmond to Swaledale and Hawes – will only run again on Sundays next summer if enough cash can be raised.

In a bid to save the service the Yorkshire Dales Society has launched an online appeal via Just Giving.

Last year campaigners managed to save the bus, formerly known as the Wensleydale Flyer, thanks to a combination of local fundraising, and sponsorship from a West Yorkshire based stairlift firm.

Donations can be made at www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/yorkshiredales-society/NorthernDalesman2017.