A FAMILY-RUN Italian restaurant in Tottenham will feature in a BBC film starring Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman after proving it had all the right ingredients.

Hidden gem San Marco, in Bruce Grove, has been serving up classic Italian dishes for nearly 38 years but caught the eye of location scouts who were enthusiastic about the spacious venue's potential.

Owner Graziano Parletta, a lifelong Haringey resident, agreed to open the doors to his venue and was even offered a walk-on part in The Song of Lunch which airs on BBC Two on October 7.

Filming took place over a two-week period in June and the restaurant was transformed into a film set.

Graziano said: "I guess we just ticked all the boxes and it is quite a big deal for us. Both the stars were down-to-earth and I was able to chat with them while they were on set.

"It was nice to be noticed because people often forget we are here. We have our regular customers and thanks to Spurs we can often fill the restaurant three times over on match days, but Tottenham is not the first place people think of when they want a nice meal. The area has a mad reputation that is not deserved and we want to dispel those bad myths."

San Marco was opened by Graziano's father, Joe Parletta, who has handed the reins over to his son and plays the role of the supporting actor and often donates fresh produce like wild rocket and tomatoes from his allotment.

The restaurateur said: "It is amazing that we have been able to last so long. We are not a chain. We are just a small restaurant who pride ourselves on making classic dishes but very well. We have evolved over the years and started serving pizzas by the metre which is unusual these days."

The production directed by Niall MacCormick responsible for Margaret Thatcher biopic The Long Walk to Finchley tells the story of book editor, Harry Potter actor Alan Rickman, who meets up with former lover, Emma Thompson, for a lunch at their old haunt "Zanzotti's" 15 years after their break-up.

It is a dramatisation of a Christopher Reid narrative poem to coincide with National Poetry Day and sees the pair go down memory lane.