AN insight into the making of the popular BBC programme Walking With Dinosaurs will be on offer at one of the events in York's first learning festival this week.

Phil Manning, keeper of geology at the Yorkshire Museum, will be showing off dinosaur bones - like the cast of a sea dragon (crypton cleidid) which have arrived in York, ready for a new exhibition starting on July 22.

The cast, will help Phil show visitors how the programme makers made dinosaurs "walk" and he will be explaining the science behind understanding the prehistoric creatures.

He said he would be talking about the TV tricks behind the series and the way that more unusual dinosaurs were chosen for many of the programmes.

And he promised many more specimens would be on show for visitors to look at his interactive lectures on Thursday and Friday afternoon, at 2pm and 3pm.

The free event is one of a host of different talks, demonstrations and displays going on as part of the three-day learning festival, which starts on Thursday.

The idea of the festival is to show that learning doesn't have to take place in a classroom, with varied venues across the city lined up.

Brochures outlining the events are available from public libraries, Future Prospects in Swinegate and the Learning Information Shop in Piccadilly.