Stars including the actors Martin Clunes and Harriet Walter have contributed to a Dorchester-made film which aims to spread some Christmas cheer in a festive season which is going to be very different.

Writer and director Julian Fellowes and veteran journalist Kate Adie also appear in the film which has been put together in a 'community enterprise' by Dorchester Town Council and Dorchester Choral Society with support from schools, businesses and organisations.

It aims to 'bring the magic of Christmas to residents in a year where we all know that Christmas may just not be the same'.

Many events familiar to Dorchester residents won’t be taking place – there will be no Christmas Cracker, no ice rink in Brewery Square and no large-scale carol services or carol singing.

So a team are putting together a professionally produced film 'Dorchester at Christmas 2020', made by Pageant Productions, to conjure up the spirit of the season.

Through a combination of traditional carols, music, readings and images from the town and surrounds the film brings the community together to celebrate Christmas in a different way.

All the Dorchester schools have been invited to take part. The Dorchester Choral Society is providing some well-known carols as well as other seasonal music, whilst Tatterdemalion 'takes viewers back to an earlier age'. Local businesses and organisations have supported the project in cash and in kind.

The film will be given for free to those that need it most: the hospital, hospice, care homes and to others who may be isolated. But the film will also be sold from mid-December to raise money for the mayor’s chosen local charities and for school PTAs.

The film will be distributed online but also as a DVD with a launch date of the second week of December. More details of the launch will be released nearer the time.

Jane Howard of the project committee said: “This is an incredibly exciting project that has clearly captured the imagination of large numbers of local contributors. We are extremely grateful for all the support we have had already and we are confident that many residents will want to have the film to watch over the Christmas period. It is good to be celebrating what we can do together in this most difficult of years.”