BOLTON'S newest celebrities are set to steal the show on Rolf Harris's latest TV programme - but only after overcoming a spot of "stage bite"! Mel Crossley and Catherine Harrison, founders of the Lancashire Hedgehog Hospital in Little Lever, have been filmed for "Rolf's Amazing World of Animals", due to be shown tomorrow at 7pm. They appeared in the BBC studios with two of their patients - the three-legged Wild Thing and the more amenable Sugar - and were in danger of being overshadowed by the prickly pair.

For in rehearsals, Wild Thing decided to bite one of the hands that was feeding him with TV stardom.

Mel said: "Before we went on air the cameraman asked if he could hold one of the hedgehogs as he had never handled one before.

"I did warn him that Wild Thing was lively, but he still asked to hold him. The next thing I knew the hedgehog dropped to the table and the cameraman was screaming in agony."

Despite that hiccup, things went smoothly and they were surprised with a special award from Rolf for "Outstanding work with Hedgehogs".

Mel said: "It came totally out of the blue. The whole experience was fantastic. In the evening we were interviewed before an audience of around 200 people."

The studio shoot followed a visit by Rolf and the film crew who spent a day at the Hedgehog Hospital in Churchill Drive, Little Lever, last year.

The hospital was founded in 1994 and has a reception area, the Hogslodge accommodation block, an accident and emergency department and a rehabilitation unit.

Once treated, hedgehogs are released back into the wild, apart from those who would not be able to survive due to blindness, loss of a limb or becoming too friendly after being hand reared. These hedgehogs are adopted by people with "safe" gardens.

Mel said: "We hope the TV programme will encourage businesses to offer sponsorship, enabling us to meet our aims.

"We already visit clubs, groups and other organisations to promote the education side of our work but, with a little help from sponsors, we could do so much more in this area."

Anyone wanting more information should phone Mel and Catherine on 709144.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.