There was a great amount of variety on Britain’s Got Talent last night, but my favourite two acts of the evening were musician Tokio Myers and magician Josephine Lee.

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Last year, I headlined Impossible in the West End for eight weeks after I won Britain’s Got Talent and Josephine was one of the cast members. Every night I started my act on the show with her illusion as she produced me from a cage that was on fire, which was fun!

I’ve seen her do some really incredible acts on stage in the past so I’m sure she’ll do really well if she gets through to the semi-finals. I’m sure she’s got loads of amazing things ready to showcase. I tell all magicians they should enter BGT but I had no idea she’d applied until I saw her last night, but it was really good to see her do well.

Traditionally women have been the assistants when it comes to magic, so it’s great that Josephine is showing that’s not the case any more and it was a very unique act. I’ve not seen anything like it on Britain’s Got Talent. I loved the levitation – I think levitation magic is just brilliant and it just really really surprised everyone.

And Tokio Myers, too – he really had the surprise factor. I wasn’t expecting him to start with a classical piece like that and then make it all upbeat and poppy. What he did was really clever, controlling both the piano and the backing music with the electronic pads at the same time, and hearing his story about how he learned to become this great musician showed how he defied the odds to be where he is today. That's a great message for everyone.

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I saw that his Twitter went mad after his performance – everyone else obviously loved him as well. I found the whole thing very inspiring and very original. What a moving performance!

Amanda’s Golden Buzzer act Daliso Chaponda was so funny. He was a hilarious guy and made everyone feel great before he’d even told his first joke! He’s very different from some of the other comedians we’ve seen on the show this series, and his kind of comedy was very natural. He seemed like a really nice man and was really chuffed when he got that Golden Buzzer – even if he was quite casual about it! If anything, that just made him even funnier.

A comedian hasn’t won the show yet, and last year Amanda said she wanted a magician to win and I won! So maybe she’ll be right again! I’ve got a good feeling that a comedian can win this year.

One of the other funniest moments of the show came courtesy of Ryan Tracey. The fact that all the judges got really behind him and into the balloon modelling was so amusing. I didn’t expect him to do it, either – he seemed to start really slowly and I think everyone was thinking he was never going to do it, but he then sped up and broke the Guinness World Record.

Nine out of ten of the acts on the show went through this week, and that’s fantastic. It shows that people want to see people succeed because obviously BGT can be quite a critical show. But if we’re now seeing more of the positive side then that’s a sign that that’s people want to see, which can only be a good thing.

Meanwhile it’s been a busy week for me. I’ve done four shows in the last week on my tour, and it’s been really good. I’m on my way to Nuneaton for tonight’s show, and so far this week I’ve had a couple of standing ovations which has been really lovely!

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Richard's ITV show Operation Magic is available to watch on ITV Hub and his Power Of Imagination Tour runs from April until May 2017. For more info click here

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