COUNCIL bosses yesterday reassured anxious callers about a national landmark which has been slowly disappearing on TV screens.

Middlesbrough Council was contacted by numerous people about the fate of the Transporter Bridge, which is being slowly dismantled as part of the BBC TV series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

Computer graphics have shown the 1911 bridge, which spans the River Tees, in various states of demolition, and many viewers have believed the realistic images to be true.

The storyline centres around the demolition of the bridge so that it can be reassembled in the US and a couple who saw the actors at work apparently travelled from Portsmouth for a final look at the structure.

The bridge carries up to nine cars at a time across the Tees in a cradle suspended by wires from its steel structure.

A council spokesman said: "We have had a number of calls and there has been a lot of speculation about the future of the bridge.

"It has attracted an awful lot of attention, which we are delighted about, but we are equally delighted to be able to tell people it is not coming down."

A BBC spokeswoman said: "The quality of the graphics is superb and it is quite flattering that people really think the bridge is going to America.

"But people can be assured we would never dismantle such a high-profile landmark and the bridge is not going anywhere.