A DALES bus company has been delighted with the reaction to the latest in the ‘slow TV’ trend as almost one million people tuned in to the bus journey.

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 Ingeton.

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 shown on landscape shots.

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

Other slow TV shows - billed as an antidote to the digital age - broadcast recently by the channel which are said to have been ratings hits include one in which James May reconstructed a lawnmower, a year-long study of an ancient oak tree and journeys on a canal and a sleigh.

Cassian Harrison, editor of BBC4, said: “The route is saturated with history and filled with stories, and there’s nothing like a nice bumpy bus ride going uphill and over dale. It was a beautiful thing to watch, the best guided bus tour you could ever have.

"This programme was a very special treat; an opportunity to sit back and appreciate the sights and sounds of the beautiful Yorkshire Dales in a rich and absorbing antidote to the frenetic pace of modern life.”

The Northern Dalesman service is run by Dales and Bowland Community Interest Company (D&BCIC), a volunteer-run subsidy of the Yorkshire Society a registered charity.

One of the services, the Wensleydale Flyer, is currently under threat of closure if sufficient funding cannot be found.

The DalesBus 856 connects market towns Northallerton, Bedale, Leyburn and Hawes, as well as the many villages in between – but unless it can raise £13,500 to keep it going it will end in October.

Email offers of support can be sent to Jan Stallworthy at companysecretary@dalesandbowland.com.

Further information about the Northern Dalesman and the DalesBus network can be found at www.dalesbus.org/thecountrybus.