BBC1's new weekly drama Our Zoo is bringing back a whole lot of memories for June Williams - who will make a brief appearance in tonight’s episode.

Growing up at Chester Zoo as the daughter of its founder George Mottershead, June remembers only too well the harsh criticism her family received when they first arrived in Upton in late 1930 with plans for constructing the first ever zoo without bars.

But how true to life is the adaptation, which continues to go down a storm with viewers, many of whom have described it as ‘the best thing on TV for ages’?

“Much of it is true, but then again a lot of it has been made up,” laughs June, 88. “There were people like Lady Katherine around at that time, although whether her character was an actual person back then is unlikely.

“In a way, the show is both true to life and artistic if you know what I mean - at the end of the day they have to make a show. They did what they did, and I was in their hands. What do I know about TV? I’m just very pleased that our family’s story is being told.”

As for how Upton is portrayed in the six-part miniseries, June says she has clear memories of it being a place where the houses were spread out, and Great Budworth, where the Upton scenes were filmed, is much more compact.

“They had just completed the A41 around the same time we moved to Chester,” June recalls.

June Williams in her childhood bedroom at Oakfield Manor at Chester Zoo, with Liz White, who plays June's mother Lizzie in Our Zoo

But the antagonism and hostility from local people against the building of the zoo, which we’ve seen the small-screen Mottersheads face in the first few episodes, strikes a familiar chord with June.

“To be honest, it was every bit as bad as it is on the show,” she says. “There was a lot of ill feeling in the village. A lot of people don’t realise the struggle and how much work my grandparents, father, mother and sister did back then. Lots of zoos are started by institutions and have wealthy people to back them up but we had little money and it really wasn’t easy.

“However, at the same time, there were also people that helped us, so it wasn’t all totally one sided.”

And June herself can be briefly seen in episode three - screened tonight at 9pm- as one of the protesters, but ‘don’t blink or you’ll miss me’, she warned.

“We had to film for a good 10 hours, and it really makes you realise how hard these actors work - lots of work goes into these shows and there’s a lot of standing around.

“But I loved it, everyone was so kind to me, it’s given me a completely different outlook and new interest.”