Channel 4's winning play revealed

The play will open at the New Ambassadors Theatre in London

The winner of a TV talent search to find a new work by a first-time playwright to be staged in London's West End has been revealed.

University lecturer Kate Betts, a 51-year-old mother of three, has won Channel 4's The Play's The Thing for her drama On the Third Day.

Betts was among 2,000 hopefuls who submitted ideas for the contest.

The play, about two strangers meeting in a bar, opens at the New Ambassadors Theatre on Thursday.

On The Third Day was selected by a panel of expert judges, including producer Sonia Friedman and actor Neil Pearson, from a shortlist of 30 plays.

Producer Sonia Friedman is among the show's judging panel

The Play's The Thing is the brainchild of Jan Younghusband, C4's commissioning editor arts and performance, who was behind successful reality TV shows Operatunity and Musicality.

The series saw Friedman, Pearson and literary agent Mel Kenyon whittle the shortlist down to three finalists.

Betts, from Chichester, beat Iain Wetherby, an advertising copywriter from London, and Steve Gardner, a supermarket worker from Manchester.

New work rarely opens in the West End because commercial producers are unwilling to take the financial risk.

"If the West End wants to be a vital force in the next 25 years, we have to nurture the new playwrights," Ms Friedman told the BBC News website last year.