By Claire Hill, The Western Mail

Charlotte Church has the ability to generate a flurry of headlines and column inches - but few of these come from the official Church camp. Claire Hill gets to see an official documentary that scratches beneath the surface of a not so ordinary teenager....

WATCHING Charlotte Church sing Pie Jesu at a precocious age, I always thought she must have been a bit of a brat.

Child star - she can't help it. There has got to be an in-built diminutive prima donna in there somewhere.

By the time she passed 16, got herself a boyfriend, started smoking, drinking and basically covering the front pages, I was even less enamoured.

I've only met her once, at her film premiere, and in person she seemed surprisingly intelligent and quite witty. But despite this I still have the propensity to judge her on her tabloid stories and discuss her outfits as if she is not a real person but someone living in a celebrity bubble.

So it was with some scepticism that I sat down to watch Charlotte Church: Spreading her Wings, the BBC documentary which is due to be aired on Wednesday night.

The documentary, taking the official line or more truly showing Charlotte in a human light, has a lot of work to do in the public's eye to make people reappraise some of their opinions. But it does go some way to re-addressing the fall of the angel.

Pulling no punches, the documentary starts with two of the things that hardcore Charlotte fans hate - her smoking and drinking.

"It's so ******* annoying ... sorry", says the 18-year-old as her mother chastises her for swearing. But get used to it - she smokes, drinks, swears, and has a boyfriend.

But as the hardcore fans might be turning in their graves - or more likely internet forums - it seems to bother her less and less.

"I think I lost my traditional fans when I started growing up. They did not like it as soon as they thought, 'You're not a very good role model to our granddaughter'."

Some of the things to clear up at first: she used to get £250 a week allowance, her parents bought her a hi-fi which was a bargain for her 18th, and she now has a sensible allowance and a set credit card limit.

But the big issue in the singer's life over the past year have been men, and particularly Steven Johnson.

This is where you really see the dynamic between Charlotte and Maria. Both strong-willed and feisty, there is a deep love behind what they say, and as much as Maria fiercely attacks Steven, Charlotte defends him.

One exchange goes along the lines of, Maria, "She is very fond of Steven"

Charlotte, "I love him and he loves me."

Maria, "Well, we all are young and think we are in love."

Charlotte, "Stop being so patronising."

But the vulnerable side of the confident-in-love Charlotte is on full show when she splits with Steven.

Speaking directly to the camera, she explains Steven upset her on a night out so she went home, but hours later a 31-year-old female friend of Charlotte's driver rang to say Steven was kissing some "troll".

"And I found out other things that people said that it's been happening for a while and everything. Yes it's pretty hostile at the moment and I am the one who should be doing that .I do love him."

Her break-up happens as she is writing songs (which, by the way, are quite good) and more ironically stuck for lyrics for a blues song. She soon changes tack and writes one called Unfaithful. Her mother believes it should be called Betrayal.

Days later, she is obviously annoyed at the way Steven is portraying himself as the innocent victim, but it is in a scene between Charlotte and her mother that you really empathise with the 18-year-old, as there is a real worry that he will sell his story.

"He knows everything, everything about me and all my family and he will bring it all up because he is that sick, and I can bring it all up about his family, but I wouldn't. I have more dignity and more respect and love for all his family to bring it all up."

Meanwhile Maria, worried and furious for her daughter, retaliates in a typically protective manner, saying that she would have no qualms going to the press.

"For six years I have been told 'shut up and do not comment'. I won't be told by Sony management or some little PR people what I can and can't do when it involves my daughter."

Steven's eventual story brings howls of laughter from Charlotte's friends at his modelling shots and Charlotte treats his words with disdain, clearly not bothered about him.

Charlotte has been famous since the age of 12 and this film is not an example of a whingeing star complaining about press intrusion, although she does have her issues with fame.

"I do love what I do but I used to love it more when I didn't do it, when I wasn't doing it professionally."

By Duncan Higgitt, The Western Mail

ONE OF the many criticisms of Charlotte Church is that she is not clever, and even her mother asks whether she has a brain in her head, after some of the things she does.

But the documentary depicts an articulate and witty young girl.

One of the most touching scenes of the hour is Charlotte, Maria and "Bampy" (her grandfather) sitting in the kitchen - which by the way looks like a kitchen in any other family home - listening to her new music.

Bampy is jigging his knees, the figure of a proud and loving grandfather, and Maria is ready to give the musical advice that Charlotte desires.

"She is the best judge of my voice," Charlotte says. "Nobody can judge my voice like she can, she has got an instinct for it."

That is not to say that they agree every time, but even Charlotte concedes that she often comes round to her mother's musical point of view in the end.

SHE smokes, she drinks and she argues - just like many teenagers.

But as Charlotte Church's ever protective mum Maria puts it: "The difference is Charlotte is going to be photographed doing it."

From a farewell tour to Hong Kong which sees her say goodbye to her persona as Voice of an Angel, Charlotte is seen seeking out a new path for her career in a BBC documentary to be screened next week.

Cardiff's very own songstress, who graced international stages as the doe-eyed youngster with the voice from the heavens, is all grown up and having recently reached 18, she is forthright about her life and her fame.

This is a brave portrayal of how things really are for Charlotte Church. The fixed smile for the press and the pressures of living her teenage years in the gleam of the media limelight are evident as she takes time out, often quietly puffing away on a cigarette.

A showdown with Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan and a talk to the Oxford Students Union on the price of fame show her to be a young woman who has been forced to accept the intrusion.

She is passionate about her music but now there are new passions in her life. No documentary about Charlotte this year would be complete without ex-boyfriend Steven Johnson. He is a prominent figure as her first serious boyfriend, and their very public break up brings raw emotions to the screen.

There is the heartbreak and the fear of betrayal when she hears he is to sell his story. There are rows with her mother, who spills the beans on her own feelings about Steven Johnson, declaring: "I don't hate him, I don't really know him that well, I just don't really believe he is the right person for her," and there is plenty of pain vented in the studio where Charlotte is recording her new sound.

But by her 18th birthday in February, when news she is to get her "millions" sets in, she is back on her feet enjoying the attentions of new beau Kyle Johnson.

A birthday trip to London accompanied by her close pals is just what the gal needs and again the press are out in force to capture every moment, including her fall outside a top nightclub which made tabloid headlines, as predicted by her mum.

But for all the Champagne parties, £10,000 tour gowns (accessorised by a £25 Louis Vuitton copy bag from a Hong Kong market), and photo shoots, it is back home curled up with her grandad and mum on the sofa watching videos of herself as a child star where she seems happiest.

Charlotte says: "I love what I do, I love singing, but I loved it more when I didn't have to do it." For all the money, the fame and the frolics, you get the impression she is paying a high price.

(c) 2004 CharlotteChurch.net