A teenage girl became part of a historic annual festive television programme last night as she featured on the BBC’s Christmas Lectures.

Dr Challoner's High School student Lucy Edwards, 13, from Gerrards Cross, was seen assisting on screen when the show was broadcast yesterday evening (Tuesday).

As part of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, Lucy was invited to join others for the filming in front of a live audience earlier this month as she joined Professor Danielle George on stage to demonstrate how fibre optic cables work.

The first programme aired on BBC Four across three nights from Sunday, December 28 – with Lucy appearing in the final episode yesterday.

Before the show, she said: “I thought the demo was really interesting because I didn’t expect the light to travel through the water like it did. I loved being part of the Christmas Lectures.”

During the mini-series the professor looked at three great British inventions – a light bulb, a telephone and a motor – and demonstrated how viewers can adapt, transform and ‘hack’ these every day technologies to do extraordinary things.