CELEBRITIES descended on the Radio Teesdale studios today (Friday October 17), to help with their fundraising community radiothon.

Special guest stars included ex Coronation Street actress, Shobna Gulati, and Upper Hand star, Joe McGann, who popped in to support the live two-day event to raise funds for the Barnard Castle-based station.

The pair joined volunteer presenter, Mike Patterson, to talk about their new play, April in Paris, a bittersweet romantic comedy, which is running at Darlington Civic Theatre until tomorrow night (Saturday October 18).

They also praised the “friendly” region with Ms Gulati saying she had enjoyed a shopping trip in Darlington and had even popped to a hairdressers for a blow-dry.

Talking about the radiothon, shei said: “I think it’s really important to keep local radio going because it’s important to establish some form of community where people can feel they can be a part of it.”

Mr McGann added: “You need places like this where the listeners are more important than the advertisers.”

Radio Teesdale director, Peter Dixon, said the station needed to raise around £60,000 a year to keep the station going and hopes to raise around £5,000 this weekend.

“People do look forward to it every year,” he said.

The radiothon is available on 102.1 and 105.5 FM and will continue until 10pm tomorrow night (Saturday October, 18).

Listeners can also donate and tune-in online at http://www.radioteesdale.co.uk