Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
TO BRITAIN’S GOT TALENT FINAL
it makes me the luckiest human being on Earth. My mum knows me and gets me more than anybody.”
As a speech and language assistant with experience in dealing with autistic children, Debbie picked up that her son may be on the autistic spectrum early.
But it was only when a teacher also expressed concerns that she sought an official diagnosis.
Debbie, 64, says that as Travis got older, his autism became more challenging, but music seemed to help.
She says: “I found Travis would be calmer when music was playing so he had a tendency to go off in his room and listen to music.
“It is quite common with autism that people need to be on their own and need their own space.
“We were aware that he was singing, but he would not come out and let us hear him.”
Travis, from Cwmbran, South Wales, first started singing publicly when he joined his grandfather Tony’s male voice choir, aged 14. Then a visit to the Millennium Centre in Cardiff on his 15th birthday to watch his first live musical, Sweeney Todd, reignited the spark he had felt watching Hugh Jackman belt out Bring Him Home in Les Mis.
Travis says: “Watching a musical live was the most magical thing.
“To see this amazing group of performers coming together to create something so special, I thought, ‘I want to be part of this… this is where I can finally feel like I belong’.”
Shortly afterwards, Travis joined a local amateur dramatics group and played the
Pantomime Dame in Dick Whittington. He laughs: “We couldn’t find high heels to fit my size 15 feet, but I loved every second of it.”
When he left school with no GCSES, Travis was jobless and despondent, resigned to a life of failure. Then Debbie saw an advert looking for autistic actors to audition for a television drama called The A Word about Joe, an autistic boy.
Travis says: “I’m so lucky my mum had the confidence for me and believed I could get it enough to drive me all the way to London to audition.”
Travis got the role of autistic teenager Mark Berwick in the show, directed by former Eastenders actress Susan Tully, which led to bit parts in BBC dramas Casualty and Doctors. His
HIS BIGGEST FAN ON
SATURDAY 03.06.2023 mum also urged him to audition for BGT – and he has sailed through to the final on the public vote.
Judge Bruno Tonioli told Travis he could walk into a West End show tomorrow, which made him feel “extremely lucky and grateful”.
Travis says: “On the semi-final, I went through a range of extreme emotions in a short space of time.
“Every single emotion is heightened – that’s what viewers saw.
“Some people get it and some don’t, but I honestly feel like me, like I’m not going to hide. I used to despise my autism, but now I don’t.
“Musical theatre is all about conveying big emotions. I don’t feel like a freak on stage, I feel like I belong.”
■ The Britain’s Got Talent final, tomorrow, ITV and ITVX, 7.30pm.
My mum has always been by my side… she gets me TRAVIS GEORGE