Fisher, said Lord Lloyd-Webber, had a set of "cast-iron lungs"

"I didn't think I would be looking at a major libel case," he told BBC One's Breakfast following claims his recent talent search programme was rigged.

Connie Fisher won How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? earlier this month.

"We had no idea who was going to win it," said Lord Lloyd-Webber, calling contrary claims "absolute nonsense".

"I don't see how you could fix it," he added. "I didn't know until three minutes before the end of the show."

Had there been any suggestion of duplicity, he said, "the BBC would have been down on me like a ton of bricks".

The BBC would have been down on me like a ton of bricks Andrew Lloyd Webber

An article in Saturday's Independent newspaper referred to complaints made by two unsuccessful Maria contestants that Fisher was recording a CD before the final.

Lord Lloyd-Webber, however, said Fisher had been recording her own album, a project unrelated to the BBC's programme.

The Phantom of the Opera composer also rubbished claims that the departure of "alternate" Maria Emma Williams had been acrimonious.

Williams, who previously appeared in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, was contracted to share the role of Maria with the eventual winner.

Emma Williams withdrew from The Sound of Music on Friday

Following Fisher's declaration that she wished to appear in every performance, however, she "withdrew her services" from the production.

"Emma said that under the circumstances, she didn't feel she wanted to stay," Lord Lloyd-Webber said in a subsequent interview with Radio Five Live.

Her departure, he said, had been "perfectly amicable".

Despite the speculation regarding his talent show's outcome, Lord Lloyd-Webber said he was considering a US version, potentially involving his own musical Jesus Christ Superstar.

"The reason Maria worked was we were really trying to do something new," he said.

"It's been fantastic for musical theatre in general."