Christmas came early for fans of the hit television show The Only Way is Essex when the cast and crew arrived in Thetford.

Injecting a touch of glamour, the group filmed a scene involving the purchase of a Christmas tree at Thetford Garden Centre on Friday.

Manager Jeanette Jones said the cast and production team were at the centre for about two hours.

'They called me up because apparently they were staying in the area, although they wouldn't divulge where, and they wanted to film a scene with them buying a Christmas tree,' she said.

'I said we only had about 50 trees left but they said that was fine. Some of the boys went outside to stand with the Christmas trees and the girls joined them.

'They were very pleasant people.'

The scenes will be broadcast as part of the reality-show's hour-long Christmas special which will be shown on ITV2 tonight (Wednesday).

Ms Jones added: 'Hopefully it's good for us because a lot of people were telling us they recognised them - even a lot of elderly people and they were having their pictures taken.'