WHEN a pub landlord challenged staff at a neighbouring hostelry to a lip sync battle, they simply couldn't resist.

Andrew Starling of the Falcon Steakhouse in Wotton threw down the gauntlet to the Star Inn as a way of raising funds for new defibrillators for the town.

He gave a deadline of three weeks for both pubs to film and put online a video of staff strutting their stuff and miming the words to a popular song.

And both establishments met the July 30 upload deadline, with the Star Inn opting for a Britney Spears' track, and the Falcon choosing a musical number, The Other Side, from The Greatest Showman.

Mr Starling, who stars in the Falcon's riveting video, along with sous chef Harry Luckett, was inspired by videos of American police officers performing pop songs, which have gone viral across the US.

He said: "I saw some videos online from the US, of different police departments calling each other out for lip sync battles and thought it looked like good fun.

"So we called out the Star Inn in a lip sync battle and gave them three weeks to respond.

"We are using these videos to help raise awareness of our town's defibrillator appeal, which has being organised by the Wotton Lions.

"There's charity collection buckets in the pubs, and people can also donate via the Wotton Lions' Facebook page.

"The video with the most likes will win, and the losing team will have to wear their pyjamas to work on Saturday, September 1.

"The winners get bragging rights over their neighbouring pub.

"It took about an hour and half to choreograph and film our video, which we did all on one night after work. 

"Both videos had over 30,000 combined views before they'd even been up for a day."

Robin and Annie Heap of the Star Inn both impress as Britney Spears in a hilarious rendition of her hit song, Baby One More Time, which also features other members of staff and punters.

Faye Young, who works at the pub and also has an A-Level in media studies, put the film together.

"I was given a coursework project very similar to this so it all came in very handy and was a lot of fun to do," she said.