THE shocked family of Lynne Nugent ended up facing the cameras when a hopeful phone call put them on national television.

Lynne, a fan of Channel 4's US drama Desperate Housewives, called Richard and Judy after half-listening to a competition based on the series.

The daytime show contacted her to say they were sending a film crew over a week later. Lynne had not realised her family were expected to act out a scene from the latest episode of Desperate Housewives.

Filming was on Sunday at The Feathers Hotel in Ledbury, when 'Mike the plumber', played by Lynne's husband Paul, arrives for a date with 'Susan', alias Lynne in a black wig, having been shot. Not even dad Maurice Harding, of Saxon Way, Ledbury, could escape.

Lynne said: "I've never done any acting before. It was all so funny and we played it for laughs. It was really hammy. My husband wasn't very impressed when told what he had to do and my father was also roped in as a waiter for the scene."

The result was broadcast on Wednesday afternoon but the Nugents, of Riddings Farm, Bosbury, lost out on the prize of a holiday to Los Angeles, including a visit to the Desperate Housewives set, when a rival family were declared the winners.

Lynne said: "We were robbed. We were better than the other contestants, though I'm biased of course."

The couple's children, Nicholas, seven, and Louise, nine, we not part of the scene but were praised for being so well-behaved throughout the shoot.