Japanese film makers have used the offices of the Wiltshire Times in a new film about mysterious crop circles.

The weekly paper was the first British newspaper to publish a picture of the phenomenon, when three round shapes appeared in a field of oats under the gaze of the Westbury White Horse in 1980.

They took five days to make the documentary, which will be broadcast in Japan in August.

The programme will centre on Doug Bower and his late friend Dave Chorley, who 10 years ago claimed they produced most of the hoax crop circles in the area.

Editor Toby Granville said: "They did a reconstruction… I, of course, played the editor - which took some serious method acting!"

For the filming, Doug, now 79, showed the film crew how he could still make a crop pattern using the same equipment he started out with in the late seventies.

Using wire sights fastened to the peaks of baseball caps, the hoaxers trampled down patterns in fields of corn using wooden planks.

Experts dismissed the pair as a couple of cranks, but England-based Japanese film company Media Nations felt it was important to reconstruct their story.

Film production co-ordinator Kanako Hiramoto said: "We chose to film at the Wiltshire Times because of its connection with crop circles."

None of the paper's staff received a fee for their bit-part roles in the documentary last week but other local people were paid £50 a day to appear as extras.

After the publication of the first photograph in 1980, the number of circles appearing in Wiltshire fields increased year on year.

Crop circles have become big business all over the world, but although the formations have appeared in other countries, England, and Wiltshire in particular, is regarded as the home of the phenomenon. More than 50 have been recorded in England so far this year.

Pictured are the crew with some of the newspaper staff who starred as "extras".

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