COUNCIL workers are set to become TV stars in a warts-and-all documentary called Are You Being Serviced?

Binmen, leisure workers and teachers will go head-to-head with EastEnders in the ratings war when the series is broadcast.

While links between the new fly-on-the-wall show and 70s cult comedy Are You Being Served? are supposed to begin and end with the twist on the title, opposition councillors fear Blackburn with Darwen Council could end up being the butt of jokes across the nation - just like John Inman and Co!

TV company Granada has been given permission by the authority's chief executive to follow certain departments over the next three months to gain an insight into how the council works.

Council leader Sir Bill Taylor said: "This is a great opportunity for us to show the positive impact front-line public sector employees have on the lives of individual citizens."

But Lib Dem councillor Paul Browne said: "It will make us a laughing stock. Look at the title. It either sounds very similar to the camp comedy from the 70s -- or a dodgy film.

"I think it will end up showing the council in a poor light. The BBC did a programme called Vox Pop in Darwen in the 1980s and that portrayed us all in a bad light. We weren't even consulted. It is downhill all the way."

The council's registrars' department -- which deals with births, marriages and deaths -- will be filmed, along with schools, early years services and parts of social services including adoption.

Council-run summer playschemes have also had cameras trained on them, and crews will also film what goes on behind the scenes at King George's Hall.

They will also trail the borough's binmen as they grapple with the new fortnightly collection services imposed on parts of the borough so that recycled waste is picked up one week, and non-recyclables the next.

Conservative leader Colin Rigby said: "It could be good, but also be bad. It is also important that it is politically neutral, and has opinions from all sides."

A spokesman for Granada said: "The programme is expected to broadcast on October 16, and will probably be shown in several of the regions of the country. It is a prime slot."