A MALVERN woman was given a second chance to attend the BBC's Fame Academy this week.

Marie-Louise Doe, aged 19, from Malvern Link, narrowly missed out on a place in the hit TV show following auditions in Birmingham last summer.

The former Dyson Perrins pupil, on a gap year after her A-levels, was among the final 18 candidates shortlisted for the programme, but did not make the last 12.

After being told the bad news, she assumed her chance had gone. However, the BBC is staging a special celebrity edition of Fame Academy for Comic Relief.

Candidates

Producers asked Marie-Louise back to film a five-day test-run course at the Academy.

With other candidates who just missed out on a spot in the original show, she completed an exhausting set of vocal, dance and performance lessons on Wednesday, all under the gaze of BBC cameras.

The resulting show will not be broadcast, but Marie-Louise said that the experience and expert tutoring she received was well worth it.

While the original series lasted three months, five days was enough, she said.

"I absolutely enjoyed it but I found being cut off from the world and getting used to these lenses following you around kind of weird."

Despite positive feedback from her time at the Academy, Marie-Louise says she is not banking on a showbiz career, although she will be keeping an eye open for future auditions.

A career in teaching is also a possibility.