Daughter’s TV quest for stardom in honour of Orville star Keith
THE daughter of TV ventriloquist Keith Harris has performed an emotional audition on Britain’s Got Talent in tribute to her late father.
Kitty Harris, 19, hopes to follow in her dad’s footsteps by making her name in the showbusiness world as a singer.
She told the judges at auditions in Manchester: “I’m doing this for me but half for my dad too. He heard me sing but always used to tell me to shut up! I want to be able to perform on stage like he did.”
Kitty sang With You from the film Ghost and got very emotional, crying at the end and struggling to sing the words as judges Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon also shed tears.
Talent show impresario and judge Simon Cowell said: “Well, that takes guts. As a tribute to your dad, you couldn’t have picked a better song. I could hear you choking up. After I lost my mum and dad I got to a point where I could talk to them, which I do every day.”
Amanda added: “So many people sing but stand there and don’t think or feel about what they are singing. You felt every single word. It was a very special audition, real and authentic.”
Grateful
Kitty’s dad Keith, with his sidekick duck Orville, were huge TV stars and The Keith Harris Show ran on Saturday evenings on BBC One from 1982 to 1990.
He also performed privately for the Royal
Family before his death in 2015.
Kitty has performed gigs in Blackpool and went to dance school from the age of four.
In an interview last year she said: “I’ve always wanted to sing. There are really funny videos of me when I was younger singing karaoke songs. I love singing. My dad’s dad was a singer and could hit really high notes so I don’t know if it’s come from there, but I’ve always been a performer. I feel very lucky and very grateful that my dad is who he was because even though he’s gone, it’s so easy to be able to go and have a look at his old shows on YouTube and elsewhere. It’s great.
“And I feel like my dad is always watching me and he’s always guiding me. I can feel it and I don’t feel upset really at all because I know that he’s there watching down on me.”
Viewers can see how Kitty gets on, and if she goes through, when BGT returns to ITV later this year.