A Christmas song that was written for Coalville three years ago has been given a new lease of life ahead of the festive season.

The members of the band The Jack's Jokers were only teenagers when they penned Christmas Time: A Song For Coalville in 2017.

It was part of a project organised by Deana Wildgoose of the Coalville community group Think FC.

And she re-posted it again ahead of the 2020 Christmas season which comes at the end of one of the toughest years in living memory.

It was intended to bring some Christmas cheer to the town in 2017.

And one of the song's writers agrees that the town now needs lifting more than ever.

You can view the You Tube link to the song above.

The video is filmed in and around Coalville and includes well known sites such as the Belvoir Centre and St Bernard's Abbey.

And the lyrics reference William Stenson, known as 'The Father of Coalville' a mining engineer who sank a mine shaft in Whitwick in the 1820s.

'The Famous Fifty' - specially selected volunteers from the Coalville area of Leicestershire who went to fight in World War I on the Western Front in 1914 - are also mentioned.

Bardon Hill and the Emporium nightclub feature in the lyrics too - and the song is a celebration of the town.

The boys have gone their separate ways since then.

But Oli Mellor was the lead vocalist of the group and played acoustic guitar and keyboards and remembers how the catchy tune came about.

"I was in a band with Harry Walford, Ben Pearce and Patrick Johnson, at King Edwards VII School, we were doing gigs in Coalville, and we were invited to take part in a project organised by Deana," he said.

"She asked us to write a song about Coalville to raise some Christmas spirit and we thought: 'That's cool, let's do it'.

"We wrote the lyrics and music, Deana organised the video and it was all funded by local organisations.

"It was all quite exciting to us. But since then Harry is at university now in Sheffield, Ben is in the army as a military musician and Patrick, I think is training to be in the RAF.

"I work locally but still involved in the music world - but it's obviously been tough this year with not being able to play live.

"But everybody's been suffering and I think we could all use a little bit of joy. Maybe we can put a bit of a smile on people's faces.

"It'll be great for everyone to get a boost in the new year hopefully."

Oli says that the song came together with few hitches.

"It was relatively quick to come up with the lyrics and the music, we were given a timescale of about four weeks to get it all recorded," he said.

"The lyrics came out within about a week, and then another week was polishing it and tidying up the verses."