IT WAS a popular film and television series and a hit West End musical.

Now a production of Fame! has had a successful run at Highams Park School in Handsworth Avenue.

Mirroring the real lives of the cast, who performed the show as their main project for the BTEC in performing arts, Fame! follows performing arts students in the famous New York Academy.

Drama teacher Lucy Hall said that there were no hitches and the show ran very smoothly.

Speaking on the last day of the run, she said: "The cast are all very tired at the minute. The show does require a lot of physical activity, there are quite a lot of songs that have really intense dance routines."

A collaboration with Year 13 and Year 12 performing arts students and music students under musical director Sonya Anfon, the production, which has taken five months to rehearse, has seen students and teachers put in a lot of hard work.

Miss Hall said that stars of the show Carly Salmon, Rebecca Doran, Jack Heath, Ross Crawford and Nick Zenonos, who are all 17 or 18, had been brilliant in the show and that drama teacher turned director Laura Bennett had also done an excellent job.

"It has extremely successful and there has been lots of support from the local community," she added. "We have had a lot of past students come along and parents of past students too."