This week's fuss over the BBC recording Songs of Praise for Christmas and Easter at the same time reminded us of Cambs Times journalist Kath Ingram's experience - back in 2004 - when she attended a recording... of their Remembrance Day and Christmas editions, also on the same day. This is how we told the story in October that year.

Christmas came early for Cambs Times journalist Kath Ingram when she was invited to be in the choir for two special recordings of TV's Songs of Praise.

A BBC team was at Ely Cathedral to film this year's Christmas special for the long-running show, together with a Songs of Praise for Remembrance - and Kath was one of those to take part as part of the core choir.

Sports journalist Kath (left) said: "I had to make five trips to Ely, which is about 20 miles away, in the evenings after work and we had to do lots of practices before the two recordings."

And to make the programme as authentic as possible, Kath and her fellow choirists were asked to get into the festive spirit.

Kath, who sings with St Peter's Church in March, said: "We were told to dress up in our best Christmas clothes and they gave us candles.

"The Cathedral was quite drafty in places so there was wax all over the place and some of the candles were going down at an enormous rate!"

On the days of the recordings the choir had to go over the carols and hymns several times and often repeat just a section until the recording was passed by the meticulous BBC team.

Kath said: "Because the technical people were in vans outside the cathedral, a telephone link had been set up to the conductor and he would get the verdict on the singing each time.

"We all began to wait anxiously for the telephone to ring to learn if we had to sing a particular piece again and breathed a sigh of relief when we could move on to the next piece of music.

"The whole experience was very interesting and enjoyable. Although it was quite exhausting, we wouldn't have missed it and are now looking forward to reliving the occasion and looking out for the faces we know on our screens."