A museum owner has shared his “happy experience” of spending time with the lead singer of Status Quo as part of BBC’s Celebrity Antiques Road Trips.

Chris Littledale, 80, welcomed Francis Rossi to the Brighton Toy Museum as part of filming for the show which will air later this week.

In the episode, the pair will take a look at some of the rare and vintage trains that the museum houses as well as seeing the band’s frontman helping to repair one of the locomotives.

Chris, who has run the museum since its opening in 1991, said: “He was a lovely man to deal with and he was very easy going. He had a wicked sense of humour.

“He absolutely loved the railway and we had a lot of fun. We just had so much in common.

“I can’t wait to watch it, everyone of a certain age remembers Status Quo so we can’t go wrong with that sort of publicity.”

Scenes for the episode of the BBC2 show were filmed in the museum in June when Rossi and BBC production crews visited the museum.

The Argus: Francis, right, and Chris in the museumFrancis, right, and Chris in the museum (Image: Brighton Toy Museum)

Chris and Francis spent their time running vintage gauge 0 trains on the grand central layout within the museum.

Francis was also able to help restore one of the trains in Chris’s workshop as part of the show, which will air on Thursday, December 8 at 7pm.

Jan Etches, general manager of Brighton Toy Museum, said: “We had one of the production staff ring us and they were looking for something for Francis to do.

“They filmed here for about three or four hours and it was just a fantastic day.

“He got on fantastically with Chris, he was belly laughing and they were like a couple of mischievous boys.”

On his visit, Francis also got Chris to sign one of the souvenir logbooks from the museum which Francis took away as a gift from his visit.

Francis’s visit to the museum will air in Celebrity Antiques Road Trip on BBC2 on Thursday, December 8 at 7pm.