Each carriage on the new Wicker Man rollercoaster at Alton Towers cost as much as a brand new £450k Bentley

THEME park fans won’t want to miss a documentary on Channel 4 that goes behind the scenes of one of the UK’s most popular parks.

Inside Alton Towers takes a look behind the scenes as the park prepared to launch its newest rollercoaster, the wooden Wicker Man.

Visitor numbers to are still down after the tragic accident on the Smiler rollercoaster in 2015, which injured 16 people.

The documentary was filmed over several month and looks at the fight that the park has to draw in new visitors with its new weapon, the Wicker Man ride.

As designer Bradley Wynne gets to work on designing Wicker Man he reveals that the rollercoaster is a gamble as some might see it is as retro.

He explains: “Wooden coasters fell out of favour in the 1970s when theme parks started to up their game.”

But there’s nothing old fashioned at all about this rollercoaster, which is the first wooden rollercoaster to be built in the UK in 20 years.

The wooden rollercoaster isn’t just fast – it also journeys through fire on its way round (although it’s carefully engineered so people can’t get burnt).

And that “smoke” you see coming out of the “burning” ride? It’s actually water vapor.

Later on in the show the viewer learns that each carriage costs as much as a brand new Bentley – that’s £450,000 each, and there are three of them.

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The rollercoaster itself has been a £16million investment to the park – a huge gamble if it doesn’t take off.

It’s made from 7.5 thousand tons of wood and goes at up to 46 miles per hour.

The viewer will also meet the park’s super fans, who spend all their free time on rides.

Mark Lewis is a mega fan, and loves rides so much that he has a tattoo of the Megafobia rollercoaster, a wooden rollercoaster at Oakwood Theme Park in Wales.

He explains: “I have a passion for wood”.

Mark is very excited to ride the Wicker Man, which he calls a “woodie”.

By the end of the show, the viewer sees both the press and the public unleashed on the park to try out the new ride for the first time.

Another super fan, Richard Jones, is going to be a tough crowd.

He proudly shows the camera his Guinness World Record certificate for being among the most naked people riding a rollercoaster at one time.

He hopes to be the first in the queue for the new ride on its opening day.

He says: “There’s a fair amount of rides that I’ve been the first one on. It would be a dream come true to be the first one on the ride.”

It’s a resounding success for the ride when the launch day finally comes around – and yes, Richard is at the front of the queue to ride.

Inside Alton Towers is on Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm.

Sun Online Travel previously tested out exactly what it’s like to ride the Wicker Man.