Last night BBC one kicked off its
reality singing competition the Voice, whilst ITV 1 began its quest to reign
supreme over the talent competitions on terrestrial TV with Britain’s Got
Talent.
Now, my intention was to watch
neither. Just as it had been my intention to watch neither the X-Factor nor
Strictly Come Dancing. Yet just as I did last October time I ended up watching
both channels programs, and doing the usual flicking between the two channels
during the twenty minutes where they were head to head.
I wanted to be able to sit here today
from the comfort of my own home, and moan about the poor standard of performers
on Britain’s Got Talent which usually makes me wonder whether the program should
actually be called Britain’s Got Confidence (for no apparent reason) – granted
not the catchiest of titles, or Britain loves to Embarrass itself on national
TV – again I accept that the title could be more quippie! But I can’t. I can’t
moan, because last night I wasn’t left wondering if Britain had talent. It
clearly does!
Don’t get me wrong there were
still very many truly awful acts that were rightly buzzed off, but the show did
manage to find a couple of absolute gems. One of which had the Susan Boyle
effect. In fact it’s possible that Simon Cowell may wish to change the X-Factor
to Susan Boyle factor, and today I believe a lot of people will agree that
Jonathon (who with Charlotte) had it.
Yet it seems that despite having
witnessed the Susan Boyle phenomenon, we all (as viewers) are still very judgmental.
Perhaps Britain’s Got Talent should be broadcast without pictures, and sort of
steal the concept of the Voice. Then maybe we viewers would be more willing to
just listen to talent, rather than judge it in the time it takes the performer
to walk to centre stage. Granted I appreciate this would not be helpful for all
those acts that are not singing!
Last night though, I’m not sure
that anyone (aside from Jonathon or Charlotte’s family and friends) believed
that when he walked out onto stage – looking a little bit like Hurley from Lost,
that he was going to be able to prove that he had talent.
Regardless I am sure of
everyone’s best intentions, I think we all thought exactly the same as Simon
Cowell. This was going to be a quick buzzer moment. Poor Jonathon had been
judged harshly straight off the bat, and let’s not kid ourselves the reason he
was judged so harshly was because of how he looked!
It was like Susan Boyle all over
again. He stood centre stage (granted with his friend Charlotte, so he wasn’t
alone out there), shaking and clearly terrified, wanting to show that he had
talent. And wow, did he show that! He less started to sing, but more unleashed
the power and glory of a spectacular operatic voice. It was instantly clear for
all to hear that he has talent.
For BBC One, I can only think
that the kind of chatter that Britain’s Got Talent will be getting on social
media in part for the performance of Jonathon will feel like a kick in the
teeth. Why? Well, ITV managed to show that you don’t need your judges to sit
with their backs to the performers. If you have a voice, or a talent, it will
show through.
On an additional note the Voice
didn’t really inspire any kind of emotion in me whatsoever, which means that
next week I probably won’t bother to flick between BBC One and ITV 1 during the
head to head. I’ll instead simply turn over to watch Britain’s Got Talent,
because even aside from Jonathon I thought that the show was the better of the
two.
My favouritism might also have
had something to do with Only Boy’s Allowed – the boys’ choir from the Welsh
Valley’s, who nearly had me in tears. Even
though I knew from the lead up that the rest of the choir were waiting in the
wings, when just the choir master and the two soloists introduced themselves to
the judges. The point at which they all filed onto the stage and sang as one
was amazing, and the poignancy of the moment was really something to see.
For me Britain’s Got Talent had a bit of
Strictly, a bit of the Voice, and it certainly had an X-factor of sorts. For
me, it ticked all the right boxes!
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