I'm set to appear on The X Factor

I am set to appear on The X Factor – now there’s a headline I never thought I would write about myself.

Let me explain. Last Thursday Severn Casting sent me to Huddersfield for the day to be an extra on food giant McDonald’s latest advert which will be shown within the next few weeks during the breaks on the popular Saturday night ITV entertainment programme.

It was a fascinating day off from marketing and selling my two books, Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel and God’s Secret Listener.

The film crew (pictured below) spent four days filming in and around Brook Street in the West Yorkshire town – for just a one-minute advert.

McDonald’s marketing manager Steve Hill said "We looked at various places to film the advert, but we picked Huddersfield for the architecture and the backdrop of the hills."

It was an early start as I had to be there at 7.15am and didn’t finish until 6pm, but it was interesting seeing the film crew and the one professional actor in action.

We had to bring three changes of clothing for the wardrobe manager to decide what she wanted us to wear for the filming.

I had to smile when I heard about one young lady extra who packed her car with 16 small cases full of clothes only to be told she was fine as she was.

We were paired off as couples and I spent most of the day inside McDonald’s with my ‘wife’, Megan James, pictured below, whose claim to fame was that she was Nora Batty’s stand-in on the TV series Last of the Summer Wine.

With free food and drink and hearing about Megan’s career and meeting the other extras it was a fun day – and I got paid for it.

I just hope that I make The X Factor – and not the cutting floor.