IT WOULD be easy to mistake the Britain's Got Talent dog and pony show for The Susan Boyle Experience featuring Some Other Guys. But support for series victors Diversity was strong among the younger members of the audience and the other acts held
their own.
The drill for the evening was straightforward – each of the show's ten finalists reprised their turns from the series while cheesy host Stephen Mulhern churned out bad puns and enforced jollity.
Diversity set the bar high, opening the show with their energetic Mission Impossible routine. They were followed by Shaheen Jafargholi, 12, who appeared to have beamed straight in from Opportunity Knocks. Singing ballerina Hollie Steel, ten, was Bonnie Langford to Shaheen's Lena Zavaroni, with her rendition of I Could Have Danced All Night.
At least pre-teen body popper Aidan Davis gave a performance rooted in the 21st century, while schoolboy Shaun Smith would not have been out of place in the X Factor.
Saxophonist Julian Smith delivered musak versions of All By Myself and Somewhere, while grandfather/granddaughter double act 2 Grand, performing Disney number A Whole New World, were an end-of-the-pier oddity.
However, what the crowd really wanted was a father and son dance duo performing a singularly unfunny send-up of Riverdance: cue standing ovations for Stavros Flatly.
Flawless straddled the interval with two slick, witty athletic routines to a medley of R&B hits. But Diversity had the cute little boy factor.
When she finally appeared in the second half, Susan Boyle received multiple standing ovations. She sang her two songs, Memory and I Dreamed A Dream, beautifully, if a little ahead of her backing music here and there and accompanied by rather self-consciously schooled hand gestures. Then with a modest "thank you" and a wave she was gone, only to return for her final bow, insulated by her fellow finalists.
