ARTIST Ken White is hoping his latest work will inspire future generations of school children to follow in the footsteps of Swindon's icons.

The mural painter spent Tuesday morning creating two giant pictures of the town's most famous actresses, Diana Dors and Billie Piper, in a corridor at Commonweal School in Old Town.

While painting his murals, Ken was filmed by BBC documentary makers for an episode of Inside Out to be shown on November 7.

"It was pretty daunting having them filming you the whole time while you're trying to concentrate," he said.

"I left Billie's face until the very last minute because it was nerve- wracking. I think I could have done it a bit better. I did it a bit quicker than I normally would. But as an artist you always feel you could improve your work."

Ken borrowed photographs from the Advertiser's archives as the starting point for his masterpiece.

He copied the photographs to transparent film then projected the images on to the eight-foot by four-foot boards.

After sketching the outlines he put the finishing touches to his work with the boards in place in the corridor beside Commonweal School's theatre.

"They have a lot of theatre and performance at this school," said Ken. "So I would like to think these murals might inspire some of the pupil to follow in the footsteps of Diana or Billie.

"I put Diana Dors' name on the bottom of her picture because I thought the kids these days might not know who she is.

"I've left a blank space on Billie's though, because I'm hoping she might come and sign it her self."

Ken will be returning to Commonweal next week to see the children's reaction to the latest addition to their school.

His artistic career started as a sign writer for the Swindon railway works and since then he has become one of Britain's most successful artists and his murals can be seen around the world.

Ken even spent several years working for Virgin boss Richard Branson when he created the Scarlet Lady emblem on the airline's planes.