Eighty-nine-year-old Margaret Frost was one of the one hundred and sixty-eight women in the ATA and features in the programme. She spoke to the BBC TV blog about her part in the Battle of Britain.

How did you come to join the ATA?

Well, I was taken up with aeroplanes at the age of 10, as I watched my mother go up at Shoreham in the old days when it was just a tiny field. She wouldn't let me go up and I was very cross. You know how children are, I wailed on. I think I was eventually allowed to go up in a cabin by myself when I was about 11.

I was bitten by it and I spent all my time saving up my money to buy goggles and helmets. It was always very expensive to fly. But then the war was coming and the government realised how serious it was and we hadn't got enough fighter pilots. So what turned out to be the nucleus of ATA was a group of men who got the government to fund a scheme where flying clubs let everyone fly at half price. And then people like me were able to afford it - just.

It was called the Civil Air Guard and several of our people came from there. It was really to train men to fly in the RAF. They took women as well, but I was underage and there was a long waiting list. I eventually got in during April of 1939, only a few months before the war.

I managed to go solo and get an A licence. It's a tremendous business to get an A licence nowadays but then you just had to get up to 2,000 feet, close the throttle and do a dead stick landing, and that wasn't very difficult.

It was a dangerous occupation and the film highlights this. Did you have any near misses?

I was very lucky actually. I keep thinking about other people. I had aircraft which held together, put it that way. But we had this accident report which came round and I was always horrified by the ghastly things that happened to some people and the wonderful things they'd done to retrieve the situation. Everyone was highly commended and I kept thinking 'Would I have thought of doing that?'

I expect I had scary times. With the weather I must have done when it got hazy. That was horrible, flying in haze.

We had limits on the hours we could fly but I don't think anybody stuck by them. You just flew until you couldn't fly any more. Most of the aircraft were priority so you were allowed to be over the limit if you thought you could manage. I think all of us just stooged on.

Were you surprised at how much interest the press showed in the female members of the ATA?

Of course. I always feel that this doesn't mention the men. They were the ones who started the thing, and we joined about six months later. There were 640 men and we try terribly hard to get them involved but nobody wants to know.

And some of them were heavily disabled. There were two who had one eye and one arm and flew, and there were one or two with one leg. But we never talked about this in the ATA. It's something that happened and that was the end of it.

We got this special badge from Downing Street, and it was only the women who were going to get it. I happened to know Giles Whittell, who wrote the Spitfire book. So I said, "You can't do this, where are all the men?" There had to be the men as well. And all the ground staff.

It's just like the services - if you get given a medal, everybody has it because they've all contributed in some way or another. Anyway, that went through fortunately, so everybody got one.

I don't think Number 10 knew quite what to expect and we didn't know quite what to expect. It was great fun.

I wonder what the original people would have thought, because they didn't want a fuss made. On the other hand I think they would have been glad that there was some recognition because it turns out that what we did was very useful. Absolutely essential, actually.

When you look back on it, the achievements of the ATA, and then look at today, female pilots still aren't that common...

Well, there are probably a lot more than you'd think. They blossomed after the war. Jackie Moggridge, who was one of ours, got second and then I think first pilot of an airline.

And of course the air force is full of them now. Nobody thought of it as a war, if you see what I mean. It was enough to have got in the plane and be ferrying things. You didn't think of actual fighting.

It was supposed to be the first case where women were paid the same. I think a lot of it has come on since then.

When you go near planes now do you get those memories of joy of being up in the air again?

I don't, I'm afraid. I don't really want to be flown - it's a bit like being driven, you know. I remember, I hadn't been in airliners very much, and we were coming down from Prestwick. I was sitting there and we were coming into Heathrow. There wasn't much wind and the pilot was trying to get the speed down a bit, and my right arm shot forward, to the amazement of the passenger next to me.

Well, he was a bit slow in getting the throttle open a bit and you get what is called an air pocket, but it isn't really, it's because you've lost speed, you know. I anticipated it automatically.

Margaret Frost features in Spitfire Women.

Gary Andrews is the Assistant Content Producer on the BBC TV blog.

Olivia talked to me just after she'd watched the completed version for the first time, to find out what it was like on the set of Rev, how she hoped it would be received and why comparisons to the Vicar Of Dibley are wide of the mark.

Can you tell us a bit about Rev, and your character, Alex?

Rev follows a vicar - an inner-city vicar, who's moved from the countryside - and the trials and tribulations of his very little congregation, and he and his wife. You know, normal stuff that shows he's a normal, human person - a married man with normal problems but also a dog collar.

It was lovely playing Alex. She's quite ballsy but they're both very good people - they're helping people in different ways.

I kind of felt that Alex thought that Adam made her want to be a better person because he really does turn the other cheek and try to see the best in everybody and she's maybe a bit more keen to just say "Agh, let's just go home!"

But she's lovely to play and they're a lovely, lovely couple. I mean, it's sort of from their back story. We think they met when they were quite young - before he went into the cloth - and she just followed him wherever he went because they're soulmates.

What were your thoughts when you first saw the script?

I really like quite dark comedy and I like the fact that it could stir people up. I don't think that's a bad idea, ever.

Some people are quite precious about vicars and vicars who can get erections [laughing]. But he's human, we're all nothing but humans and that's what I like about it, it really did deal with the humanity, the spit and dribble of everyday life. But you'd be disappointed it you're wanting the Vicar Of Dibley!

There's a great bit in the second episode where, in an effort to spice up their sex life, Alex walks into a supermarket dressed as...

A prostitute!

Yes! That part had me in stitches. What was that like to film?

It was quite embarrassing! The shop had security cameras so they guys who owned the shop were standing there looking really bored watching us on security cameras and me tarting around in high heels. It was embarrassing! But fun. I like the waist the corset gave me!

What were your impressions now that you've seen it properly on the screen for the first time?

I'm really proud of it - I loved it! Sometimes you watch things after it's been through the editing process and you worry that people have cold got feet and have wanted to jazz it up for an audience.

The original script was just so beautiful on its own, it was dark and there were gaps, you know, spaces for thoughts to happen - I sound a bit pretentious now - but what I love is they haven't tried to change it, they've just left it as it was.

It was called something different while we were working on it, and Rev really suits it. I much prefer the name, as it was originally called Handle With Prayer. Rev's right for it - it's snappy and modern.

As you say, it's dark but it's also quite accessible to somebody who's come to it cold and likes mainstream comedy.

Absolutely! Because they're funny characters and Tom does funny - he can do it easily. And then there's his reactions, and you know that he's battling with his thoughts, and you can watch it all unfold. It's a classic comedy in terms of what someone does in an awkward situation.

How does your character progress as the series goes on?

They're always trying to find time for each other. What else? There's more attempting to have a sex life. And the fact that she says "Don't wear the dog collar in the bedroom!" I mean you would do that, wouldn't you? You'd say "Don't do that!"

[The interview takes a quick break at this point as Olivia composes herself after collapsing into a fit of giggles]

There's a lovely episode where a friend of Alex's, who is a Muslim girl, asks if she and her Muslim friends can borrow some space to pray in the church. Adam's like: "Of course, of course," and then he's battling with how people feel about that.

It's like, "There are Muslims in my church!" You know, it's saying out loud everything what everyone thinks. Adam just goes, "Don't be ridiculous," it's just... it's great.

What kind of reaction are you hoping for when people see it for the first time?

I hope they're going to warm to the characters and love them.

Colin [played by Steve Evets] is a homeless smelly guy and you wonder are people going to love him? But he's lovely! And the fact that Adam might well be his only friend in the world.

There's one episode where he lets himself in, or he breaks in, we don't really know, and he has his morning dump in the downstairs loo of the Vicarage and you're not really sure how Adam and Alex cope with that!

But I hope the audience warm to these people and they want to know, I don't know... after seeing it they think, 'I want the people to do well in it. I hope they're going to be OK'. And I think these characters are strong enough and lovable enough that people want to get really involved. It's much more than a comedy about religion and vicars.

Gary Andrews is the assistant content producer for the BBC TV blog.

Rev starts at 10pm on BBC Two on Monday, 28 June. To find out further episode times please visit the upcoming episodes page.

As Dana, the blog editor says, just watching the preview for the programme leaves you feeling angry, emotional, upset and more than just a little intrigued.

The programme, which airs on BBC Three tonight (Tuesday 30 March), follows a young woman's journey back to the Democratic Republic of Congo to see the effects of widespread violence and rape against women in the country.

One of our aims on the TV Blog is to give you the inside stories on the shows featured here, or highlight inside stories in other places, and Fiona's piece does just that, painting a vivid picture of a country where "rape is cheaper than bullets".

The World's Most Dangerous Place For Women is one of a range of programmes across the whole BBC network to coincide with International Women's Day earlier this month.

Jana Bennett has already written about the highlights of this series in a previous post on this blog - if you've not already read the post, it's a good place to start for a snapshot of other programmes around the day.

Gary Andrews is standing in for Fiona Wickham, TV Blog Editor, while she's on holiday