A TV ACTRESS who began her life in a North-East children's home has told the heart warming tale of how she was taken in by a County Durham mining family.

Angela Bruce, who starred in the BBC drama The Messiah 2: Vengeance is Mine, made an emotional return to the pit village of Craghead, near Stanley, after more than 30 years away.

In the television documentary, shown as part of the Inside Out series on BBC1 last Monday, she was reunited with an old school friend and talked frankly about being the only black child in the village.

Born in Leeds, she ended up in a Barnado's home in Newcastle. At the age of three, she was sent to visit Craghead miner Joseph Bruce and his wife, Anne. It was only supposed to be a weekend stay, but when she came to leave, the couple could not let her go.

She said: "I remember the woman came from the children's home to take me back. They were putting my coat on and apparently I turned round and said 'Bye bye mummy and daddy'. They said, 'oh she can't go', so I took my coat off and I stayed. I never went back."

She left Craghead in 1970, a year after the pit closed, to pursue an acting career. It paid off, with roles in Coronation Street and hit TV shows such as Dr Who and Red Dwarf.

In the documentary, she told of the childhood prejudice she suffered from some of the villagers.

"They used to have a thing where you'd be walking along the paving stones and they'd say 'Don't walk along black lines because you'll get black babies'.

"I was the only black kid in the village, and sometimes it was tough. For most people, it wasn't a problem. Others couldn't accept it."

She was reunited with her best friend, Jean Coulson, who still lives in Craghead and the pair reminisced about when it used to be a thriving pit village.

"It's been sad coming back to Craghead," she said. "Half its population is gone. The pit has gone, and it feels like the heart of the village has gone with it.

"But I'm still proud to have lived here, to have met the people I have, and have all those fantastic memories."