Richard Jones's Britain's Got Talent blog: "Irshad Sheikh gives everyone entering BGT hope"
In his weekly blog for RadioTimes.com, Richard looks back at some of this week's most memorable auditions
This week’s Britain’s Got Talent was probably my favourite episode so far. There were loads of really good, funny acts. I tweeted a lot last night – usually I only tweet once or twice – but every time I tweeted about one act, the next one who came on was great as well. Although there weren’t any magicians on the show this week, which was surprising!
I struggle with impressionists normally, because quite often I can’t put a voice to a face. But Irshad Shaikh didn’t even sound like any of the people he was trying to impersonate! After he started with Sylvester Stallone, from that moment everyone was just like ‘Oh my God, this guy’s going to be terrible’.
He might have gone through as the world's worst impressionist, but it was great comedy and great entertainment. There are professionals who are intentionally bad for comedy value, and that’s an art form in itself. That’s what TV’s all about, it’s what people want to see. They want to be entertained, and he had that value. Plus, by getting four buzzers and then going through to the next round, he’s given everyone entering BGT hope!
Hoop Guy was hilarious too. That song! I don’t know how he wrote that himself, but that will never leave your mind now. Whenever you think of Hoop Guy, that song’s going to be there. It’s so catchy – I think half the nation has probably still got it in their heads this morning. I was there at the BGT auditions when DJ Dizzy Twilight performed, and I remember the whole room went wild for it.
I was up and dancing with everyone else during that one. Although she’s lost some of the surprise element from her act, I’m sure she’ll think of something clever like DJ in a spaceship coming down from the ceiling or something!
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Meanwhile, Harry Gardner’s song about his grandmother with Alzheimer’s disease was so moving. He did it so well, sung it in such an emotional way and the words were really clever because everyone could relate to them, like talking about his nan giving him a chocolate bar from her handbag. Something like that is really relatable and makes it powerful stuff.
When it comes to dancers Grace and Ali, I don't think that it matters that Ali won a CBBC dance show hosted by Alesha Dixon. I’d be very surprised if Alesha remembered him six years after a show, especially as he would have been six years younger and would have changed a lot in that time. It’s hardly like they’re best friends and they know each other – I don’t see that as an issue at all.
But I did think the judges were a bit harsh on mother and daughter singers Maternal Instinct. It was an unusual one because they sounded lovely and I thought their harmonies were nice, so I was surprised they got four nos. I thought they were quite good, but obviously the judges didn’t think so!
I’ve also never seen anything like Angara Contortion. They were really weird and really amazing! I think David felt a bit uncomfortable from the faces he was making, but they were so unusual. At the end of the performance when they were on their hands and their legs were over their backs, they looked like spiders. It was really amazing. The amount of strength they must have to do that must be phenomenal. They were probably the ones that I was most blown away by this week.
Richard's Power Of Imagination Tour has added new dates for August 2017. For more info click here. Plus his ITV show Operation Magic is available to watch on ITV Hub now.
