It will go down as the day a humble Leicester school beat TV heavyweights Alan Sugar and Jeremy Clarkson.

Youngsters are celebrating after The Choir, BBC Two's documentary which followed the fortunes of the boys at Lancaster School learning to sing, picked up a Bafta.

The programme won the prize in the Best Feature category of the prestigious TV awards, beating The Apprentice and Top Gear.

For the boys at the Knighton school, it completed a whirlwind couple of years.

They became used to seeing television cameras in their classrooms and ended up singing in front of thousands at the Royal Albert Hall.

One of the boys who starred in the show, Boston Williams, 16, said: "We couldn't believe we beat shows like Top Gear and The Apprentice.

"Alan Sugar certainly didn't look happy when they announced we'd won.

"I was at a basketball competition in West London and people recognised me from The Choir. That's really weird."

The documentary, which took about nine months to film and was screened last year, showed how choirmaster Gareth Malone convinced pupils at the boys' school it was "cool" to sing.

Another star of the programme, Lewis Meagor, 15, said: "People would stop you randomly in the street and grannies came up to me and said they saw me on TV.

"Loads of positive things came out of it. I've got into acting and want to go to acting school now. I wouldn't have had the confidence or the opportunity to do that before."

The boys said the self-confidence that learning to sing and performing in front of live audiences – and millions watching at home – has remained.

Jackson Powell, 15, said: "I think it was good for everyone in lots of different ways. It has helped me quite a lot.

"I went to a Geneva Convention on the Rights of the Child and had to make a presentation. I would never have had the confidence to do that before."

Many of the boys are soon to go their separate ways as their time at Lancaster comes to an end, but they said they would remember the experience for the rest of their lives.

The Bafta ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall, on Sunday, was too expensive and late for the boys to attend but English teacher Amandeep Macdougall, who also featured prominently in the programme, went to represent the school.

She said: "Our hearts were beating fast as they announced the winners. We couldn't believe we beat such well known and popular shows.

"It's something you dream about and it was a great project to be involved in."