A schoolgirl from Upminster wowed judges on one of the country’s most watched TV shows on Saturday.

Coopers’ Company and Coborn student Hope Murphy appeared on ITV1’s Britain’s Got Talent.

The 16-year-old, who is too young to try out for most TV talent contests, was going for her fifth audition on the show, but this was the first time it had been televised.

She told the Recorder: “It was amazing. When I was backstage I was getting a bit excited, I could hear the man who was on first and I thought he was really good.

“But he got four crosses from the judges. I didn’t know how it was going to go, I just concentrated on my singing and hoped to do my best.”

The pressure was piled onto Hope after ten seconds of her singing Mama Knows Best by Jessie J, when she was stopped by Simon Cowell who told her he wanted her to sing another song because too many people had performed that one.

She changed it to This Woman’s Work by Kate Bush, and: “I’m quite glad that happened because I think more people can relate to the second song.

“Normally when I sing I try to look at people’s faces I was looking at the judges and they were just staring.

“When Simon put up his hand my life sort of flashed before my eyes.”

The audition was recorded a few weeks ago and Hope had to keep her appearance secret from her friends when she found out on Thursday that it would be on last weekend’s show.

“When it was on I was actually stuck in traffic with my mum, I didn’t see it, I watched it later online.

“All my friends were texting me and ringing me and saying ‘well done’.”

Hope, who featured in the Recorder last year when she released a charity single for Help For Heroes, has been at the centre of a whirlwind of publicity this week, appearing in several tabloid newspapers, and on ITV1’s Lorraine programme with Lorraine Kelly on Monday morning.