Llangwm's World War I opera, which has been playing to packed and enthusiastic houses, has now featured on a top BBC Radio Wales programme - and has won warm encouragement from a major broadcasting figure.

Composer and musical director of WWI: a Village Opera, Sue Howley, and librettist Peter George were guests on this week's Jamie Owen Show (November 16).

Jamie said bringing the opera to the stage had been 'a pretty big ask' in a village of only 800 people.

But he said that, through the story of the main characters, a young couple who become engaged on the eve of the declaration of hostilities, the industrial carnage of the war had been made intimate.

Peter George told Jamie how the opera had taken on a life of its own from his story line.

"It no longer belongs to me; you write the words, and it becomes something else when it's directed.

"And then individual cast members put their own interpretation on it as well and the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts."

Sue Howley said the opera had given the village of Llangwm 'an amazing identity'.

"People have thrown themselves into it in a wonderful way; the nucleus of the cast was my choir, Village Voices, but this is well outside people's comfort zone."

WWI: a Village Opera has two more performances, at the Merlin Theatre, Haverfordwest on November 28 and 29.

The opera won grants from bodies including the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Ministry of Defence Community Covenant.