A FORMER Gorleston woman has scooped a prestigious BAFTA award for her contribution to hit cBeebies children’s show Zingzillas.

Linda Bance collected the award for her contribution to the CBeebies show, which features four primates who make their own music on a monkey-shaped island.

The show aims to broaden musical horizons and introduce children to different types of music.

She grew up in Gorleston, attending Stradbroke Primary School and Cliff Park High School.

But music and dancing were always her passion and she played violin or guitar for school community projects and she was a member of Great Yarmouth Youth Orchestra and Shrublands Youth Club.

She said: “I was always playing with somebody as a child. Sometimes my mum and dad on the piano or granddad with his mouth organ. I travelled miles with my violin and bike to join orchestras and small music groups.”

Her interest in making music with children stemmed from when she started her own family 26 years ago.

The nursery nurse now runs a children’s group in Hertfordshire called Music with Mum, which teaches children the joys of music, and is a director of Royston Little Voices.

She added she was grateful to her family and teachers in Norfolk for encouraging her to pursue her passion for music, which she developed aged nine.

She said: “Finding your passion is certainly the key to happiness.”

BAFTA – or the British Academy of Film and Television Arts – supports and promotes the artforms of the moving image in the UK.

The organisation, which has offices in Los Angeles and New York, has an expert industry membership of nearly 6,500 individuals and seeks to globally focus attention on the highest achievements of films, video games and television programmes shown in the UK each year in order to motivate and inspire those who make them, and to educate and develop the taste of those who watch them.

The promotion of excellence extends far beyond awards ceremonies.

As a charitable organisation, the Academy plays an equally powerful role across nations and regions, in cinemas, schools and communities in the UK and US.

The latest BAFTA awards were held at the Royal Opera House in London on Sunday, with the movie The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth, collecting seven awards, including Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Original Screenplay and Original Music.

Other films to pick up awards included The Social Network and Inception which won production design, sound and special visual effects.

For more information on the BAFTAs, visit www.bafta.org