Children's dreams of stardom turned into a nightmare when a talent contest became engulfed in controversy.

Schools across Sussex entered a competition to be the choir in Andrew Lloyd Webber's new production of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

The search ran alongside the reality show Any Dream Will Do, which will cast the lead role of Joseph.

But the BBC was forced to apologise when the contest became embroiled in accusations of vote-rigging and was plagued with technical problems.

Music teachers have criticised the competition and said they would never take part in another.

Pupils recorded a melody of songs from the show and downloaded their videos on to the choir search web site.

Internet users were then able to watch them and vote for their favourite.

The top 20 were to go before Lord Lloyd-Webber who would chose the winner.

But the BBC was so overwhelmed with entries that the web site continuously crashed and had to be shut down for a while.

Despite safeguards to stop cheating, the corporation found evidence of block-voting and dirty tactics.

It cancelled the web poll at the last minute and put all 843 videos before a panel.

Chris Bassett, music co-ordinator at Maidenbower Junior School, Crawley, said: "The children feel very let down.

"We came back from the Easter holidays and didn't have much time to prepare so we worked really hard and practised every lunch time for about two weeks.

"It took six days before they put our video on the web site and once they did, it was out of sync so had to be taken off again for another three days.

"By this time we were already getting extremely frustrated, the web site carried on crashing and people couldn't get on there.

"We got to the point where we just couldn't be bothered with it any more."

She complained to the BBC and was told it happened because the show had not expected such a huge response.

But Mrs Bassett said: "The BBC was offering such a huge thing for children and it was very short-sighted of them to not anticipate that kind of reaction.

"I would never put the children through something like that again.

"They put so much effort in and it's all for nothing. They're like little burst balloons - completely deflated."

The school's choir is now taking part in a production of Joseph with Oriel High School, Maidenbower, in July.

Teacher Suzanne Green, of Somerhill Junior School in Hove, was more irritated than angry.

She said: "It has been very frustrating and a big learning curve for everyone including the BBC.

"I'm quite an upbeat person, though, and I'm pleased that we gave it a go and could be a part of something on that scale."

The BBC said: "The response to the competition was overwhelming, and while every effort to cope with that demand was made, we felt that the only way to make this competition totally fair to all those involved was to put all the choirs before the panel.

"This is our first experience of running a web site competition of this kind. Lessons have been learned and that this will not be allowed to happen in the future."

Other Sussex schools taking part included Herstmonceux Church of England Primary School, Laughton Primary School, and Burgess Hill School for Girls.

The winner was Brampton Primary School, in East Ham, London, which will perform live in the grand final of Any Dream Will Do on Saturday.