A student has written her dissertation for an English literature degree on cult TV show Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Jaq Bayles, 39, who was studying at the University of Sussex, said there was nothing strange about turning to the show, which stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, for academic inspiration.

Ms Bayles, from Brighton, said: "Ten years ago everybody was doing the Alien films and now they are doing this.

"I think it is a fantastic series and I thought if I was going to write to this sort of length it might as well be about something I enjoyed."

Ms Bayles says Buffy works on several levels, not just as easy viewing.

She said: "As a television programme it empowers women. It throws up great role models.

"But on the subtextual level, it then punishes the women for being powerful."

She said in her dissertation, called Drop-Dead Monstrous, she talked about how the women are more monstrous than the vampires and devils they fight.

She said Buffy herself was a monstrous character, hunting and killing at night.

Ms Bayles said: "Quite a few academics are now writing about Buffy. It does seem to speak to people in that way.

"Lots of people see the monsters as allegorical for the teenage condition."