YOUNG actors played out an all- too-familiar scene yesterday as part of a hard-hitting water safety campaign.

The group were at Cod Beck Reservoir, near Osmotherley, North Yorkshire, for the filming of a fictional emergency in which one of them, egged on by his friends, decided to swim across the reservoir.

In the scenario, he began to struggle halfway across and disappeared below the surface.

His panicking friends called the emergency services, but by the time they arrived it was too late to save him.

The dramatic scenes will be used in a water safety DVD being sent to schools, colleges and youth clubs across North Yorkshire and Teesside.

The campaign, called Dying to be Cool, is being run by the Hambleton Community Safety Partnership.

It aims to hammer home the risks of swimming in open water and is being supported by the families of two people who died at Cod Beck.

In July last year, 23-year-old Stephen Forrest, of Hemlington, Middlesbrough, drowned after trying to swim across the reservoir.

In August 2004, Darren Dey, 17, from Yarm, near Stockton, also died after going for a swim.

Families of both victims supported yesterday's filming, which was attended by police divers, firefighters, Yorkshire Water officials, paramedics and the Great North Air Ambulance.

Carl Boasman, station manager for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, said: "We can't stress too heavily to both parents and children the dangers of swimming in open water.

"The parents will stand here and watch the child in the water, and then have to go home with one less in the car. That is what we don't want to happen."

Yorkshire Water spokesman Steve Parsley said: "We want people to come here, but we want them to go home again.

"The water may look warm and inviting but, in reality, it is so cold that people's bodies just shut down and they get into trouble."

The group of actors was made up of teenagers from the Bedale- based drama group, The Three Tequilas. The part of the swimmer was played by 17-year-old Adam Wood, a member of Thirsk White Horse Swim Team.

He said: "It was absolutely freezing in there. I would never do anything like that again."