WANTED: batmen and women willing to help care for the shy nocturnal creatures.

The County Durham Bat Club will be hitting our screens this weekend.

It is part of a drive to bring in more recruits to help look after any injured or orphaned bats.

The club will appear on Tyne Tees Television's Wild North programme, in which presenter Kim Inglis joins the group on an evening's bat-watching at a former school in Middleton-in-Teesdale, County Dur-ham.

The building is home to a large colony of rare whiskered bats and during the programme the group will attempt to catch some bats in large nets, before setting them free.

Among the crowd watching will be three new volunteers who are being groomed to join the group as "bat minders".

Teacher Noel Jackson, who is group leader of the bat club, said: "What we need are people who can help out with many inquiries we get from the public.

"We get a lot of calls from people who are worried because a bat's flown into their living room, and we need volunteers who can go along and assess the situation, and allay their fears.

"If more specialist care is needed, the bat minder can call in a licenced bat handler like myself."

Wild North will be shown tomorrow at 5.30pm