Pay presto! BGT saved me
Comic was ‘down to last pennies’ as work had dried up
BRITAIN’S Got Talent winner Jon Courtenay has called his cash prize a “complete lifesaver”, admitting it fixed his money problems overnight.
The comedian, who had been Ant and Dec’s golden buzzer pick on the ITV talent series, says the £250,000 prize came at just the right time.
Jon, 47, a cruise ship entertainer, said: “I haven’t really brought any money into the house since March.
“I had a full diary and within a week I think I got 20 or 30 emails cancelling my entire year’s work.
“We’ve been living on very small savings and I’ve got the bounce back loan from the Government. We
really were down to our last pennies. This is a complete lifesaver so it’s going to help immediately, and some friends and family as well.”
The Mancunian songwriter is also looking forward to returning home to his wife Emmah and sons Nathan, 15, and Alfie, nine, who ran into the street to celebrate with neighbours.
Jon said: “We live in a small cul-desac of seven houses, and we got quite friendly during lockdown.
“On Saturday night, all of the houses had come out because they were all watching it, and everybody was in the street chinking glasses.
“It was like some Queen’s Jubilee or something, dancing in the street.”
Britain’s Got Talent, ITV
T★★★ en minutes into the Britain’s Got Talent final on Saturday, a plucky young lad tried to guess what David Walliams was thinking.
At this point, I decided to play along. But, unfortunately, despite his face suggesting otherwise, the answer was not: “Come on, David. Only another two-and-a-half hours and you can escape for another year. You got this.”
You wouldn’t have blamed him. The delayed finale to this series, held back by Covid-19, was never going to be a barnstormer.
And it took Amanda Holden to outline just how much of a slog it was going to be.
“There’s an awful lot of magicians and also an enormous amount of children,” she explained, before going all Patrick Nice from The Fast Show, and adding: “Which is fantastic.”
Not sure who Amanda was trying to convince the most – the watching six million or herself.
I know some viewers can’t get enough of children, magicians and child magicians but I’m firmly in the other camp.
And so my magical moments were provided elsewhere: the trailer for I’m A Celebrity
(yesss!) and the punchthe-air spectacle that was Sir Cameron Mackintosh’s West End musicals medley.
This year’s BGT felt like it lasted as long as the gestation period of an elephant, and there was certainly one in the room after the likes of Michael Ball and Matt Lucas had performed – namely, how could anything we had seen from any finalist compete with them?
The answer was that nothing could. Still, there’s always next year… PS: Steve Royle wuz robbed.
This year’s BGT felt like it lasted as long as the gestation period of an elephant