Our Great Yorkshire Life: Go behind the scenes of the restoration work at York Minster on Channel 5 show

The iconic building will take centre stage on Channel 5’s Our Great Yorkshire Life - which is a celebration of people and places from the county.

Christa relives the moment she got a call from the North Yokshire Fire Brigade in July 1984 when the Minster was on fire.

She said: “I got a call on a July day, it was from North Yorkshire Fire Brigade and they told me the Minster was on fire and there were 150 firefighters here. The flames leapt 200 feet above the tower and you couldn’t see how it could be saved but it was. They could have lost it all.”

It took four years of intense restoration to repair the damage and today the resotoration and repair of York Minster is ongoing.

Canon Michael Smith also appears in the programme and said: “It’s a massive privilege that this is my workplace. For generations people from Yorkshire have been coming here to say their prayers, so up in the roof is the echo of millions if not billions of prayers.”

Christa, who writes a weekly column in The Yorkshire Post, looks at the restoration of St Cuthbert’s Window and helps a stone mason with some of the work.

As well as York Minster, the show also features Howard Beaumont, Scarborough’s King of the Keyboards, as he plays at Scarborough Spa. He said: “It’s a joy. I’ve played around the world but this is still my favourite place. “

Chef Matt Healy, who was the runner up in MasterChef The Professionals, appears in the show as he returns to his Yorkshire roots in Horsforth to open a new restaurant.

Matt and his engineer partner Holly have the challenge of getting the restaurant ready for opening.

He said: “I’ve been lucky enough to work in some of the best restaurants in the world, the length and breadth of the country but there’s no place like home. I started my career in Horsforth, washing up at a little restaurant just up the road and it’s really lovely to go away and come back to the place I grew up and cut my teeth in this industry.

"My nana and my grandma were massive inspirations in my cooking career, both from Yorkshire, both inspired me in different ways.

"One more baking, one more learning how to cook and coming back here where I grew up it’s sort go channelling them two even thought they’re not around anymore, it’s really nice, the fact I’m here, back in Horsforth in Leeds where they inspired me to be the cook that I am today."

Also on the show is the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway snaking through Bronte Country in Haworth. The show follows the team as they carry out repair work on the five miles of track.

The show is narrated by Emmerdale star Dean Andrews, who is also a Yorkshireman.

He added: "Yorkshire is special it's the people and places that make it.”

Our Great Yorkshire Life is on Channel 5 tonight (Jan 20) at 8pm.