British stand-up comedian Tez Ilyas has recorded two short videos to help residents celebrate Eid safely and encourage everyone across Blackburn with Darwen to get a coronavirus test.

Blackburn-born Tez, 37, was quick to respond to the council’s call for help by recording the video messages from his car.

The award-winning comedian fronted his own satirical entertainment series that mixes sketches and current affairs, called The Tez O’Clock Show on Channel 4, and is a key star in the BBC Three hit sitcom Man Like Mobeen.

He said: "Listen, I’m from Blackburn, I live here and I want to play my part, like everyone else, to help stop the spread of the virus.

"Everyone needs to follow the guidelines so we can get through this. InshAllah."

Cllr Mohammed Khan, Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, said: "I’d like to thank Tez for helping to share these very important messages.

"Tez is extremely popular, not just locally but nationally and internationally and especially so with our younger generations.

"I hope his messaging helps to encourage everyone to follow the guidelines and celebrate Eid in the safest way possible.

"We need to do what we can to help protect our loved ones and everyone in the community.

"I’d like to thank everyone in Blackburn with Darwen for responding with compassion and empathy, we need to keep going to make sure we control the spread of this terrible virus."

Every person in the borough, even if they don’t have any symptoms, is being encouraged to take a coronavirus test to help identify clusters of the virus and enables targeted interventions to help prevent the spread.