This 'angelic' little girl spent her first nativity play flipping her two middle fingers at the audience - in a bid to show her mum her poorly finger.

Carla Bovingdon claims her daughter Ella Legge spent at least 20 minutes of the half-hour performance waving her middle finger at her mum on Tuesday.

Hilarious photos show the five-year-old dressed as an angel standing in the middle of the school nativity play, looking downcast and clutching her arm as she flips the bird at the audience.

In another photo, little Ella even brings up her other middle finger to compare her hands - hilariously unaware she was mimicking Eminem's iconic but controversial pose.

Carla, 33, claims the little girl had just a hangnail on her finger but had been so concerned she had been desperate to show her mum what was wrong by whatever means possible.

(Image: Kennedy News)

The mum-of-three joked that her daughter was 'completely oblivious' to her mistake and, despite mouthing at her to put her finger down, was forced to let her get on with it.

Carla, who lives near Maldon, Essex, said: "It was so funny because she didn't realise what she was doing.

"She likes to let me know if she's at all injured, so she was basically trying to show me what she had done from across the room. It was the tiniest little hangnail as well.

"Then she put both her fingers up because she was trying to compare to see if both fingers were hurt.

"It was pretty much for the majority of it she was there with her middle finger up. Because I didn't run over there she kept holding it up as if she was saying, 'mum, look!'.

(Image: Kennedy News)

"A couple of the teaching assistants had a bit of a giggle. I think where she was standing, and the fact that you don't watch one child the whole time, I don't think everyone noticed.

"A few of the older children whispered, 'Ella's got her finger up'. Everyone seemed to know what she was doing, but yeah there were a few laughs here and there.

"I was thinking, 'oh god, Ella please stop.' Because she was doing it so innocently I think most people were thinking, 'oh bless her'.

"That's what made it so funny as well, because she was completely oblivious.

"She's quite endearing normally and is really cute. She likes pretty dresses. Being an angel was perfect for her."

Carla shared the photos online and claims Ella was amazed when more than 7,000 people liked or commented on the post.

However she claims she had to warn her daughter not to repeat her middle finger-flashing antics in a second performance of the nativity as it 'wouldn't be funny this time'.

Carla, who works as a network marketer, said: "I posted the photos online and she had lots of laughing reactions and funny comments.

"She obviously doesn't have social media but I was showing her how many people thought it was funny.

"She wanted to say thank you to everyone for liking her picture, but then she said, 'I don't know what's funny though'. She doesn't get what the joke is.

(Image: Kennedy News)

"She just thinks she looks cute, but doesn't know why we're all laughing which is quite funny. When she's older I will get [the photos] out again to show her.

"It had to be my child. I had to keep mouthing 'put your finger down' discreetly, but then I just accepted that she was going to be standing there with her finger up.

"The performance was about half-an-hour long, and I would say 70 percent of it she had her middle finger up.

"Now after people have had a laugh I can see the funny side of it.

"She's quite endearing normally and is really cute. She likes pretty dresses. Being an angel was perfect for her.

"When she did the performance again, I had to say, 'don't do it again. It was funny when you didn't realise, but now it won't be funny so don't do it again'.

"The second performance was much better. There was a little bit of clowning around as per usual for her, but it was fine."

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