HOSPITAL drama No Angels is being filmed once again at High Royds Hospital, Menston.

Filming of the third series of the saucy comedy, staring Jo Joyner, Louise Delamere and Sunetra Sanker, is expected to take several more weeks and should be screened on Channel 4 some time next year.

Since the former psychiatric hospital closed in March, 2003, several films and television series have been shot at the site including BBC Three's Bodies, and Yorkshire Television's The Royal and Heartbeat.

The listed Victorian building was also the setting for Hollywood film Asylum starring Sir Ian McKellen and Natasha Richardson - filmed last year and due out in the autumn.

Estates manager Melvyn Hirst said since the hospital closed more than two years ago it had become a favourite film set for many production companies, not only promoting Yorkshire all over the world, but boosting many trades in the area.

"It's been good for the local community. Not only for catering and food suppliers, but for all the builders and others they use to build the temporary sets," he said.

Actors filming at High Royds have also included Max Beesley, Keith Allen and Sarah Lancashire, and for a brief while, it was rumoured that Mel Gibson would be rolling into Menston.

"Someone put it around that Mel Gibson was going to be filming here, so we had all these people turning up with autograph books, but of course it didn't happen," said Mr Hirst.

Asylum, directed by David Mackenzie, stars Sir Ian Mckellen, who played Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings, as a psychiatrist employed at a hospital for the criminally insane. His co-star, Natasha Richardson, plays a woman who falls for a patient at the hospital.

Mr Hirst said: "For Asylum they built a gatehouse in the front drive it was about 20ft high and had a wall going up to it. They made it out of polystyrene foam and took mouldings from the original wall to make it, it looked amazing and just like the real thing."

The last series of Fat Friends was also filmed at High Royds and The Beauty School, made by a Yeadon based company.

Like Minds, a film by Gunpowder Productions, was filmed during the spring and involved every tower on the site being illuminated by floodlights.

"We also had a very realistic dummy being thrown from the clock tower. It smashed into pieces when it hit the ground."

l Work on the redevelopment of High Royds to houses and offices is due to start in October.