IT started in a Winchester practise hall and led her to one of the biggest stages in the country.

Helen Pugh, of the Winchester Military Wives Choir, will feature in a two-part documentary following the story of the Military Wives Choir’s First World War commemoration.

The special prom at the Royal Albert Hall was led by Gareth Malone, patron of the Military Wives Choirs Foundation, and included 100 women from across the country.

Mrs Pugh said: “Performing at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the Proms Military Wives Choir really was a once-in-a-lifetime event. It was an amazing experience and really appropriate that the concert specifically remembered the role that women and music played during the First World War.”

The documentary tells the story of how the members were selected and led through a gruelling rehearsal schedule in preparation for the unique performance.

It was part of the BBC’s annual Proms series, and saw the choir take on classical pieces including Elgar’s The Snow and the moving setting of Tennyson’s poem Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead.

Many of the pieces were written in wartime.

The choir was also joined by life-size puppets from the National Theatre’s production of Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse.

The first episode aired on Tuesday, December 16, and the second is on Christmas Eve at 8.30pm on BBC Two.