SHE was a blind mother of three from a Staffordshire village who dreamt of singing in Rigoletto. Now the story of Denise Leigh, the winner of Channel 4’s Operatunity, is being turned into a Hollywood film.

Critics sneered at first at the Operatunity talent search, dismissing it as “Opera Idol”. Yet international broadcasters are bidding for the rights to the series, and its West End successor, Musicality, is being snapped up by stage producers.Two million viewers — a Channel 4 record for a classical music series — watched Mrs Leigh, 33, and Jane Gilchrist, a Tesco checkout assistant, achieve their dream by performing in the Verdi opera at the English National Opera.

Harbour Pictures, the British film company that co-produced Calendar Girls with Disney, has bought the rights to the pair’s story from Diverse TV, the show’s creators. The film will follow the winners’ emotional journeys to the operatic stage. Ms Gilchrist’s marriage fell apart during the series, in which a panel of opera experts whittled down 2,000 hopefuls through intensive auditions.

Mrs Leigh, who was born with the genetic condition retinitis pigmentosa, learns musical scores by imagining notes as colours. Her education authority told her that she should aim for a job as a telephonist and Mrs Leigh says that her first husband derided her musical ambitions.

After the critical acclaim of the series, Operatunity itself has become a £1 million industry, spawning several lucrative spin-offs. Mrs Leigh and Ms Gilchrist recorded a Top Ten classical chart CD and perform sell-out concert tours.

Musicality, which plucked a primary school teacher, waitress and plumber’s assistant from obscurity to star in the West End musical Chicago, was an even bigger hit. A DVD and CD has sold 100,000 copies.

Diverse is planning to turn the series into a real Broadway musical in the style of A Chorus Line, in which a demanding director auditions hopefuls for a top role. The Oscar-winning Miramax film company has a stake in the series, because it owns the rights to Chicago, and could co-produce the musical and a subsequent film.

American broadcasters are bidding for the television format rights and Channel 4 has already commissioned a third series, provisionally titled Balleyhoo. Underprivileged youngsters in Birmingham, many of whom will never have seen a tutu, are to be trained as ballet dancers. Their big moment will come when they appear with the Birmingham Royal Ballet’s production of Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet.

While making a scathing attack on “reality TV”, John Humphrys singled out Operatunity as an exception that had reduced him to tears. Roy Ackerman, executive producer of the series, believes that the programmes touch people because, unlike Pop Idol, they demonstrate that you need more than a cheeky grin to succeed on stage. He said: “We show the depth of training and determination really required to be a top singer. It is inspirational because these people have finally been given the chance to fulfil their dream.”

Lives have changed for the winners who want to grab more than just 15 minutes of television fame. Rebecca Dent, 22, a Lancashire waitress, took the role of the murderous Roxie in the Musicality winners’ one-night-only performance of Chicago. After strenuous auditions she has been chosen to make her professional debut next month with a lead role in Saturday Night Fever, the Bee Gees musical at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London.

With a demanding eight performances a week, Adam Spiegel, the producer of Saturday Night Fever, said that the production could not afford to cast on the basis of television fame. “She has been through a rigorous audition process and won the part entirely on merit,” he said. “As Rebecca has already demonstrated, she is a hugely talented performer with a big future in the theatre industry.” Other Musicality winners are to announce West End roles.

Operatunity has been a filip for Channel 4, which must convince regulators that it is meeting its public service obligations. The broadcaster is seeking financial assistance but critics said it was too reliant on Big Brother and The Simpsons.

Jan Younghusband, the Channel 4 arts commissioning editor responsible for the opera concept, said: “It was great to draw two million viewers to a series about opera. It has made audiences more appreciative of the work that goes into creating a performance.”

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