JOHN Prescott was in Greater Leys yesterday to film a BBC documentary on class.

The former Deputy Prime Minister spoke to residents and local politicians in and around The Barn in Nightingale Avenue.

He told the Oxford Mail he was filming two hour-long programmes exploring what it meant to be working class.

He said: "I didn't choose the estate, the BBC chose it.

"I rather like the estate. The people I have been meeting are very frank - they tell me their problems."

Mr Prescott said the documentary had been prompted by a quote he gave in a BBC radio interview where he admitted he lived a middle class lifestyle.

He said he visited Peers School on Thursday and spoke to pupils and staff.

Gerry Webb, vice chairman of the Blackbird Leys Parish Council, was interviewed for the programme.

He said: "I hope this opens the door to stopping all these continued barbs and stigmatism about Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys."