Grandmother Dorothy Tompson, of Jarrow, and South Shields man Darren Johnson feature as part of the new sponsorship of ITV1 show Emmerdale by Sunderland-based online bingo site, tombola.co.uk.

The sponsorship deal will run until the end of January 2011 and includes broadcast sponsorship on ITV1, ITV2 and ITV3, online sponsorship at itv.com/emmerdale, interactive sponsorship, mobile interactive bumpers and licensing.

It means Dorothy, aged 49, and 38-year-old Darren could be seen by a prime-time ITV1 audience of around six million for the next 14 months.

In all, more than 100 tombola.co.uk players took part in filming and each individual will be seen for a few seconds, either at the start of the show or at the start or end of the break of one of ITV's most popular shows.

The idents or 'break bumpers' were filmed last month at a London studio after bingo bosses put an appeal on its website.

Darren, who runs his own Santa Claus rental business at rentasanta.110mb.com, said: "I noticed the appeal for players to appear and I just thought 'why not?'

"I was always really interested to see what happens behind the scenes of somewhere like this. It was a fantastic experience.

Grandmother Dorothy, a part-time barmaid, added: "Everyone was really friendly and there was a real fun atmosphere. I've never done anything like this before. I had such a great time."

Marketing manager, Dawn Clayton said: "It was easy to forget that Darren and Dorothy were novices as they really went for it in front of camera.

"In fact, all of our players who volunteered their time were fantastic and it made for a great atmosphere on set."