A COSTUME design student from Carterton has been helping out on the set of a new comedy show and hopes it will give her a lift in the industry.

Alys Church recently spent a week assisting on the production of BBC One's Hospital People, which tells the story behind the scenes of a Birmingham Hospital and is set to hit the screens in April, when it was recently being filmed in Hartlepool.

The 21-year-old, who is in the final year of her degree course at the Cleveland College of Art and Design in Middlesbrough, worked with the team on wardrobe duties for five days, with all the excitement and deadlines that live filming brings.

She said: "The highlight for me was definitely being able to sit on set and see all of the elements involved.

"In all of my other work placements I had never experienced something like this and, although it was very overwhelming, it was so interesting and gave real insight into what it was like to work on a TV set with these teams from all areas of the production."

Ms Church spent long days working on set, organising the wardrobe for the main cast and supporting actors.

She also carried out some alteration work on a costume for a member of the cast and spent time shadowing one of the costume staff on set.

The final year student is currently working on her final-year major project and preparing for her degree show.

She said: "It was unfortunate I was unable to work with the Hospital People team for longer due to the impending pressure of my final-year major project, but the long days made it impossible to work on both at the same time.

"The days were very long, with the longest a total of 13 hours, but it was an amazing experience."

The hit TV show, made by London-based production company Roughcut TV, ran its first series last year.

The second series saw the show on location at the University Hospital of Hartlepool, and features appearances from Russell Brand and Mark Williams.