When researchers from Channel 4 contacted Hilperton woman Peggy Sugden earlier this year, she was delighted to share her cherished memories of her wartime work.

Mrs Sugden was interviewed for the hour-long programme, Guy Martin’s Spitfire, about her time working around the clock on the production line. Sadly she died last Thursday, before she was able to see it on screen.

The documentary makers had tracked her down after she sent a picture of herself and her workmates in to the Nostalgia page in the Wiltshire Times five years ago, realising she was one of only a few people left alive who could remember how the plane was pout together.

Guy Martin’s Spitfire captured a two-year project to restore an original Spitfire plane using the original manufacturing methods, after the wreckage was discovered in France in the 1980s.

Mrs Sugden was interviewed for the hour-long programme about her time working around the clock on the production line, and talked about the risks she faced: factories making weapons were regarded as legitimate German targets. She said: “I knew I might be bombed, but it didn’t bother me. I loved the camaraderie. It was beautiful.”

The programme looked at the attention to detail that went into making the planes, with 3,000 different parts in each wing, each one of them handmade.

It also told the story of the restored World War II fighter and its pilot, Air Commodore Geoffrey Stephenson, whose daughters Victoria Strawderman and Veryan Lundin also appeared.

Mrs Sugden’s son Brian said his mother was looking forward to watching the programme, but had joked with the makers that she might not live to see it.

He said: “It is sad that she did not quite live long enough to see herself on TV. She was really looking forward to watching it and everyone who knew her at Adcroft Surgery kept asking when it would be on.

“The programme makers visited her in March to do the filming and spent a day with her asking about her experiences working at the factory. She did say when they phoned her up that they would have to be quick as she had just turned 91. I watched the programme on Sunday and it was great to see mum.”

The documentary can still be seen on 4od. For more information visit www.channel4.com/programmes/guy-martins-spitfire/4od