BUSINESSWOMAN Lorna Churchill has just snapped up a Dartmouth town centre bar business – and a shot at TV fame at the same time.

The 32-year-old bought Bakers Bar in Victoria Road for £52,000 at an auction in Cornwall earlier this month.

Now she is due to be part of the hour-long BBC show Homes Under the Hammer – a daytime show which films people who have bought properties at auction and then follows them as they carry out refurbishment work.

Presenter Martin Roberts and a film crew spent last Thursday filming Lorna at the bar as well as at locations around the town and on the riverfront.

The team will be back in Dartmouth again in around a month's time when Lorna has finished doing up the bar and the show will probably be aired some weeks after that.

Lorna, who used to run what was then called Churchill's restaurant in nearby Anzac Square, owns a bed and breakfast business in the town.

She said she had never run a bar before she decided to bid for the Bakers Bar lease at the St Mellion auction.

'It was the first time I had been to an auction. I went down and it came to about the right price and I felt that I could so something with it,' she said. 'Initially I wasn't sure but my family were behind me.

'Then the Homes Under the Hammer team collared me and asked if I would like to be involved in the programme. It was a surprise but a really good one.'

She said she plans to rename the bar and open it as a small wine bar.

'It's just one room really,' she said but she said that one of the first things she did after buying it was commission a full acoustic report because of previous concerns about noise.

She said that work would be going ahead as part of the refurbishment work to ensure there are no future noise problems.

'I genuinely want to run a nice bar that everyone enjoys and nobody gets upset by,' she said

Meanwhile presenter Martin Roberts said he had enjoyed his visit to Dartmouth.

'I have been here quite a lot and I really love the place,' he said. 'It is one of my favourite places. It's truly magical.'

The Homes Under the Hammer series is the BBC's most successful show shown in the 10am slot, regularly attaining a 30 per cent share for new episodes.

Each episode of the show follows three properties – or two for 30-minute programmes – which have been bought at auction.

The properties are often ones that require significant refurbishment.

A cross-section of properties are featured including terraced, commercial, rural, and vacant land.