BARROW was thrown into the national spotlight last night when Strike, the major BBC One crime drama, featured scenes filmed in the town.

Barrow shipyard's Devonshire Dock Hall, The Crow's Nest pub, Barrow Island streets, including Stanley Road and Stewart Street, and Michaelson Road Bridge, all featured in episode one of Career of Evil on Sunday night.

Career of Evil is the TV adaptation of J.K. Rowling's third Cormoran Strike private detective novel. The series stars Tom Burke as Strike and Holliday Grainger as his assistant Robin Ellacott. The characters leave London for Barrow in the hunt for a murder suspect.

The Barrow scenes were filmed in January last year.

During episode one, Strike poses the questions; 'Does anyone ever come to Barrow-in Furness on holiday?' and this got people talking on social media.

Viewer Shane Leith posted on Facebook: "I holiday in Barrow with my family to see family and friends and do things I couldn't do/afford as a kid. And there's plenty to do."

A police officer character in the episode explains that Barrow's nature reserves and Furness Abbey are popular.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust, that runs South Walney Nature Reserve responded saying: "It was good to hear the 'nature reserves' are a highlight of #Barrow @_SouthWalney #Strike #Cumbria"

J.K Rowling visited Barrow for her research and she has described Barrow as "the most extraordinary place," saying it was "a very distinctive, unique, urban, working city".

Here's how other viewers responded on social media;

Joyce Marshal posted: "It didn't look as bad as it looked in the book."

Paul Waddington posted: "The A590 looked better than I remember."

Sharon Doughty posted: "It was good can't wait for next week."

Jeff Pickthall posted: "How did they do London-Barrow in that Landrover? They would be shattered."

Andrea Posnett-payne posted: "Do people holiday in Barrow ? I thought it was a good watch."

Sarah Ry posted: "Cut half of it out and also which way did they bleeding come?? 😂😂 great show though!"

Steven Thomason posted: "Do the police care when someone parks on double yellow lines on Barrow Island? "

David Shaw posted: "A rather poor adaptation of original book."

Guy James Pickup posted: "Great gritty images of a northern town and also london looked edgy,will be watching next week."

Karen Harris posted: "Used to have the best pie and peas in the Crow's Nest when I worked at VSEL lol."

Twitter fan site @TomBurkeOnlinex posted: "Thoroughly enjoyed that -introduced the three main suspects beautifully and Mathew. Loving drunk Robyn this time too and Tom excellent as Strike trying to deal with 12 problems at once!"

Claire DeLune @houganai on Twitter, an ex pat Barrovian and Walneyite posted: "Brilliant! Miss my home town loads so great to see so many childhood landmarks will be on screen. It’s a great series too."

Paul Redhead ‏ @paulredhead posted: "So how long does it take to get to Barrow in Furness from the M6...not 2 hours and what road were they on? Didn’t look like the A590 #Strike"

@stephenwalkley posted: "And it’s not often Barrow-in-Furness features. Barrow Island with the sub shed looming over it. Disappointed they didn’t go to Biggar Bank on Walney. A special place."

Career of Evil is a two-parter, with the next episode is going out on Sunday at 9pm.