Disgruntled Geordies have criticised a mickey-taking television advert featuring Only Fools and Horses star Nicholas Lyndhurst.

High street chain WH Smith has been forced to apologise for offending Newcastle residents with its latest TV launch.

The series of advertisements, which features an overweight Toon family clad in the famous black and white football shirts, has been branded "offensive and insulting" by viewers.

WH Smith bosses admitted that the firm's switchboard had been jammed with calls of complaint from people in the region - but said the adverts were here to stay. They insisted the adverts were not intended to cause offence and apologised to anyone upset by them.

But Jacqui Rushton, from North Shields, who has made a formal complaint to the Independent Television Commision, said: "These adverts are disgusting. If they were stereotyping other races in this way, there would be a public outcry."

The ads, show a family arriving at the home of their Northern relatives to find the house decked out in thousands of multi-coloured fairy lights and a note on the door saying Gone to the Bingo.

W H Smith spokesman Andrew Potter said: "We have used Nicholas Lyndhurst to portray the Smith family in its various guises at Christmas time over the past six years.

"This year the campaign was intended to convey a lighthearted approach to entertaining relatives at Christmas, as many people across the country do. "It was not intended to cause offence in any way to anyone and we apologise profusely for any offence caused."