Filming has started on a new movie which is set in north Norfolk - starring local places and people, as well as familiar faces from stage and screen.

Norwich Evening News: Christian McKay who is playing newspaper editor David in Chick Lit. Picture: Ian West/PA WireChristian McKay who is playing newspaper editor David in Chick Lit. Picture: Ian West/PA Wire

The Hunny Bell pub at Hunworth, and even the EDP and North Norfolk news office at Cromer, are on the shooting schedule over the next three weeks - as a 20-strong crew captures scenes for the comedy Chick Lit. It is a tale about four guys in a pub who decide to write an erotic novel to save their beloved watering hole.

Norwich Evening News: Caroline Catz who plays David's wife Jen in Chick Lit.Caroline Catz who plays David's wife Jen in Chick Lit.

It was hatched by Tony Britten from Holt-based Capriol films, which also made In Love with Alma Cogan based on Cromer Pier.

The cast list includes cameos from top actors John Hurt and Dame Eileen Atkins - as a pair of 'dodgy' literary agents.

The lead male role of David, the editor of the local paper, is played by Christian McKay who was Lord Hesketh in the motor racing film Rush.

His wife Jen is played by Caroline Catz, the long-suffering wife of Doc Martin.

David is one of four men - who also include comedian Miles Jupp as Marcus - who meet to play dominoes every week, and write a saucy novel to raise money to keep the pub open.

The novel becomes a success and they have to employ a young actress to role-play the part of the mythical author, who also ends up starring in the film of the book.

Mr Britten said: 'It's all about the notion of what would happen if a group of people wrote a book.

'It also ties in with this whole phenomenon of erotic literature and how it has grown from books like Fifty Shades of Grey.'

Producer Phil Partridge said scenes inside the newspaper office had been shot in a Fakenham solicitors' practice. The News office will be used for the front and reception - but the name of the paper changed in the film. Regulars at the Hunny Bell will also figure as extras. A book launch will be filmed at Holt bookshop.

Other scenes are being done at Gresham's School, Blakeney, Morston, the Muckleburgh Collection, and the Epic film studios in Norwich, as well as a couple of days in London.

The film is planned for release next year.