Britain’s Got Hope
Amanda: It would be amazing if we could reunite these brave families with their lost loved ones...
FAMILIES desperate to find loved ones who have been missing for years hope their emotional appearance on Britain’s Got Talent may finally achieve a breakthrough.
In a tear-jerking audition, The Missing People Choir performs for the judges on ITV tonight, with images of their long lost relatives appearing on the big screen behind them. Some have not been seen for decades. Peter Boxell has not seen his son Lee since 1988, when he was 15 years old and vanished in Sutton, South London, after a football match.
Peter tells the cameras: “When my son Lee went missing he was 15. He would now be 41, I just want to find him. But I know we are not the only ones going through this. We are all in this together and we can all stand by each other.
“Hopefully, some of the youngsters who went missing, their photographs will be shown on the screen behind us and maybe someone will come forward and tell us what has happened to them.
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“We all have to live in hope, if there wasn’t hope there would be nothing.
Sarah Godwin, whose son Quentin went missing from his family home in West Auckland, New Zealand, 25 years ago, said: “My son Quentin went missing when he was 18, just walked away from the family home one afternoon after school and was never seen again.
“Having the support of each other makes us stronger, sitting here together makes us stronger and singing together makes us super strong.
“The choir is energising, warming, safe, moving – beyond words. We can each feel our own love and sadness and pain, but we are there for each other and somehow it becomes joyful, too.”
The choir performs the song I Miss You with lyrics written by Mr Boxell which includes the lines: “I never thought I’d be without you.
“I always thought you’d be here safe with me. Maybe tomorrow I’ll wake up to find you.”
Judge Amanda Holden tells the choir they “did themselves proud” and says she is hopeful the show will help reunite parents with their missing children.
Amanda told the Mirror: “I looked at all their faces and there was one woman who looked so worn down. You could
I don’t know how they carry on every day. I can’t imagine anything worse AMANDA HOLDEN BRITAIN’S GOT TALENT JUDGE ON CHOIR’S STRUGGLE
see she had spent years waiting for the phone to ring or the doorbell to go and then she is singing.
“I don’t know how they carry on every day. I can’t imagine anything worse.
“They are talented and they will probably do really well, but really it is a forum. We might actually be able to find someone, wouldn’t that be amazing?”
Alesha Dixon added: “It was so important to tell the story and the fact the show has the platform to do something like that is incredible.
“I think every single person in that room and every single person that will see the show on Saturday has someone that they love and will be able to make that connection and feel for them. I think it goes bigger than the show, it is huge.”
Other members of the choir include Peter Lawrence, whose daughter Claudia, 35, was reported missing on March 19, 2009, after failing to turn up for work as a chef in York.
Also singing is Rachel Edwards, the sister of missing Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards, 27. He mysteriously vanished from a London hotel on February 1, 1995, on the eve of the band’s US tour.
The choir’s director James Hawkins said: “Britain’s Got Talent has enabled the choir to realise its true destiny and purpose. Through singing together on the programme, we are able to reach further than ever before in the search for the families’ missing loved ones. There are few greater platforms than this and it has given us hope.”
After their performance, host Ant wiped tears from his eyes and Simon Cowell said: “I have to pay you absolute respect for what you have just done. Sometimes awareness is as important as anything else.”
As well as the choir, there are a number of other memorable acts on the show tonight, including a stunning performance from 16-year-old singer Sarah Ikumu, which is set to make her among the favourites to win. There is dog yoga which is dubbed “Doga” and includes the dogs of Ant and Dec – although one of the mutts ends up having toilet trouble on stage.
And wacky Dutch magician Niels Harder also threatens to chop Ant’s head off during his time on the stage.
But the audition Amanda Holden will not forget in a hurry comes from eight-year-old comic Ned Woodman from Maidstone, Kent.
Ned jokes: “Why were people so excited about that talking dog on BGT... Amanda Holden has been on it for years.” Amanda, 46, was not impressed and told the Mirror: “I wasn’t annoyed at the boy.
“It is more the fact that he is a child and I don’t think that is the right kind of humour to come out of a child’s mouth.”
BGT starts on ITV tonight at 8pm. To support the charity Missing People, text FIND to 70660 to donate £5 to the Find Every Child Appeal. Go to missingpeople.org.uk for T&Cs.