Hotseat BGT is a very positive show... it’s very much a celebration
TALENT is topping the bill again and attracting millions of viewers.
The return of Britain’s Got Talent is proving a ratings hit and David Walliams says he is loving sharing the judging panel again with Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon. They are all in search of the next big stars and David said his Golden Buzzer choice (which sends acts straight through to the live semi-finals) last weekend was an easy decision to make.
Here, the 50-year-old funnyman tells us more about the latest series.
You’ve given disability dance group Born To Perform your Golden Buzzer? Did you have an idea what you were looking for this year?
No, I think it’s just a feeling. Normally, it’s when an act has been so brilliant there’s nothing to say, there’s no judging needed, it’s just been brilliant.
And also when the audience feel like they never want to stop celebrating this act, that’s what I’m always looking out for.
The audience are on their feet, and the applause never stops and you just get this sense, you know?
Image from Syco/Thames
I think for me, in more recent years, it’s been things that have hit me emotionally and so that’s what I went for this year, something that really got me emotionally
What did you like about Born To Perform so much?
I thought they were just very joyous, very inclusive and ultimately very emotional too.
I just thought that this would be the absolute icing on the cake.
When there’s a group of people on stage, it is kind of brilliant, because they’re all reacting to this great thing, this golden moment. I just felt they really deserved it.
You sometimes see an act and you think, ‘This is what this show is about, celebrating something as inclusive and joyous, and lifeaffirming as this’, and it doesn’t often happen.
If there were more groups like this in the world, the world would be a better place, is what I was thinking at the time. They remind us what’s good in the world, and we all need reminding of that now and again
How easy has it been to slip back into your working relationship with the rest of the judges?
I hadn’t really realised until we started filming that we’ve been together now for 10 years.
That’s crazy, but we do know each other very well now. I mean, there were no cross words at any point.
It was very easy to get back into it and for us all to be one dysfunctional family again. As soon as we got going it just felt like, ‘Oh yeah, this is the show we love!’.
Did you agree with the decision to take the show off air last year?
I thought it was the sensible thing to do, because I think some shows can
How would you describe the vibe of the show this year?
I think it’s pretty celebratory, because if you’re a performer, you’re out doing clubs, and pubs and things, you might not have had an opportunity to perform for a long time. So I could see it was quite emotional for people to be back on stage.
Obviously people are emotional to go on stage in the [London] Palladium, because it’s the home of entertainment in the UK. The likes of Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli have all been on that stage.
There is something really magical about going on stage and 3,000 people are all giving a round of applause. It’s a wonderful feeling.
Not everyone gets to do that. I mean, most people don’t. Most of us don’t, who maybe aren’t performers, get to experience that.
So I think it’s kind of emotional and meaningful.
I also think some people who might haven been a bit snobby work. Like Matt Lucas does Bake about doing the show have come on Off, [on Channel 4] and you could this year because they felt like, still do Bake Off because there’s not ‘Well, the last year or so has been so an audience, there’s a limited num- tough, we need this. We would relish ber of participants so you can all this opportunity to have this isolate together in a hotel. exposure, and have the chance of
But you can’t with Britain’s Got being at the Royal Variety Show’. Talent because you’ve got acts of
100 people all coming together on stage. A choir or even a dance group, all of that.
So we wouldn’t have been able to keep everyone isolated and safe.
I think it was the right decision, but it was dis- appointing. But it would have been a shame to have delivered something to the public that wasn’t as good as it should have been.
Has the break changed the way you feel about the show at all? Well, I just felt more grateful for it, I suppose. It was weird, just missing the audience.
I think it’s just you realise, if you’re a performer, it’s one thing you really miss. As judges, we get to come on the stage sometimes, and it’s so much fun, and it’s lovely to be in front of an audience making them laugh. So, you just felt very, very grateful for the show coming back. There is a kind of optimism, it’s a very positive show. I feel like it’s
very much a celebration.
Do you think the standard is higher this year because of the break?
I think people have had time to work on their acts, haven’t they?
It was like we had two years’ worth of good acts in one year.
A lot of people had met in the last year or so, just virtually, and formed a group. There was a singing group who had been doing Zoom rehearsals.
A lot of people during the pandemic were trying to find ways of doing positive things, like entertaining, singing for people, doing things for free, and all that kind of stuff.
I think that brought a lot of people together. So I think there’s a good, happy spirit to it all and people have worked hard to make their audition count.
It was very easy to get back into it and for us all to be one dysfunctional family again
Britain’s Got Talent continues on Saturdays, ITV at 8pm