Boylesport

ON Bank Holiday Monday night, a staggering two-thirds of the country’s TV watchers – that’s about 15 million people – switched on to ITV1’s Britain’s Got Talent. Since then, the media, including the rival BBC, have been following the every move and every word of Susan Boyle, the 48- year-old cat-loving, Scottish spinster widely tipped to win the competition.

SUSAN AXE THREAT ran one headline.

BOYLING SUSAN IN HIDING ran another.

And even RUSSELL BRAND SAYS HE WON’T BED SUSAN BOYLE on an internet website.

It’s official – this talent show is a phenomenon, although it’s taken three series to reach this level of excitement. All for a show that’s no more than a 21st Century version of Opportunity Knocks, but with three judges, instead of Hughie Green’s clapometer.

In the end, the public will make the final decision, after sitting through a week of live semifinals, the high ratings for which are like manna from heaven for ITV, facing cutbacks to combat falling advertising revenue.

Everyone likes an underdog, and Britain’s Got Talent has a kennel-load of them. A postal worker, who dresses like Darth Vader and dances like Michael Jackson. Former buskers, who put on white tuxedos and disco dance wearing large cutout faces of celebrities. A burlesque dancer out to show that big girls can be sexy. A father and son act, describing themselves as two fat versions of Michael Flatley with a Greek element. A street performer from Sunderland, who can lift and swing a dustbin with his ears.

And so it goes on. Some say it proves variety isn’t dead. Others that it should be if this is what it offers. Nothing’s changed. I seem to remember Sue Pollard being beaten by a singing dog on Opportunity Knocks, proving that there’s an audience for anything, no matter how bizarre.

The idea of talent shows goes back to the Thirties and Forties. Since then, it’s been reworked in a variety of ways in shows like Opportunity Knocks and New Faces. The Got Talent format, created by The X Factor mastermind Simon Cowell, made its debut in the US as America’s Got Talent, in 2006. The Got Talent franchise debuted on the other side of the Atlantic first because the British version was delayed when the original host, Paul O’Grady, defected to Channel 4.

Cowell couldn’t be a judge on the US version because of his American Idol commitments, but former newspaper editor Piers Morgan could. He now judges the US talent show with Sharon Osbourne and David Hasselhoff.

Cowell and actress Amanda Holden join Morgan on the British version. You can depend on Holden to cry, Morgan to be rude and Cowell to raise his eyes to heaven and disagree with everyone else at least once every programme.

Telephone salesman Paul Potts easily won the first Britain’s Got Talent with his opera performances, going on to forge a recording career.

Street dancer George Sampson, now 15, took top honours in last year’s competition. He’s already booked for this year’s Britain’s Got Talent stage tour that follows the TV series.

This time the talent show has gone ballistic, knocking swine flu, MPs’ expenses and North Korea’s nuclear bombshell off the front pages. The main reason is Susan Boyle, one of the most unlikely stars imaginable.

Perhaps understandably, after winning a place in the final on Sunday, she’s succumbed to the pressure of celebrity with tales of angry outbursts and being moved to a secret location.

Her fame hasn’t been limited to this country.

She’s gone global, in no small part thanks Ashton Kutcher, actor husband of Demi Moore, after he Twittered about her and posted the link to her performance on YouTube that’s had more than 100 million views.

THE church-going singer wowed judges and audiences alike with a song from the stage musical Les Miserables, I Dreamed A Dream.

A backlash was inevitable, as we like nothing better after building people up than to knock them down. She’s still favourite to win, but should nerves or temper get the better of her, then there are plenty of others waiting in the wings to snatch the crown.

The question being asked is: Is she really that good? When she walked on, the very picture of a frumpy spinster with mad hair and eyebrows to match, judges and audiences mocked her.

Which made the voice that came out of her mouth all the more surprising and, perhaps, clouded judgement.

But she’s on a roll, with talk that Andrew Lloyd-Webber wants to put her in his followup stage sequel to Phantom Of The Opera.

My inclination is that she’ll win for the simple reason that singers generally do better.

Their appeal is more universal than fat chaps dancing, or even a classy saxophonist like another finalist, Julian Smith.

Winning isn’t everything. The programme is a showcase for all the contestants – the good, the bad and the ugly. Where else would they be seen by as many as 15 million people?

One of the hardest things for specialist acts is attracting the attention of people who might want to book them. Some, though, were never going to be more than one-trick ponies, as the judges have a habit of calling acts with limited appeal.

One person who should be voting tonight is the Queen. The prize is a place on the bill of this year’s Royal Variety Performance.

Whether Her Majesty will vote for the Scottish singer or the fat Greek dancers is something we’ll probably never know.