Britain's Got Talent / Mike Norman / 01 April 2012 /

Having originally tried to win X Factor only to be disqualified for a breach of rules, boyband The Mend returned to Reality TV with a solid audition on Saturday night. Mike Norman believes they are certain finalists.

In typical Britain's Got Talent fashion, the first week of auditions was barnstorming, and vigorously whet the appetite; the second week was about as enjoyable as having to queue hours upon hours for petrol on a red hot day.

ITV, BGT, or whoever do it every year. If they have a stand-out act they fit it into a jam-packed show during week one (ala Paul Potts and Susan Boyle), get the mass worldwide exposure they want on social network sites like Twitter and Youtube, and then reel out some below par auditions during the next few weeks; barring the odd good act occasionally.

What it all means is that we've definitely seen this year's favourites to win Britain's Got Talent in the shape of Charlotte and Jonathan. In the last week their audition clip has accumulated over 10 million hits on Youtube, and that is on a par with Boyle's audition clip over the same period.

Betfair doesn't have a Winner market yet, but when that market does materialise we can be very confident that Charlotte and Jonathan will be heading it.

What Betfair does have however is an Individual or Group market, with Any Group being available to back at just [1.5] currently. That category will cover Charlotte and Jonathan of course, as well as covering one of the better acts from Saturday night, The Mend.

Consisting of four young men from Manchester, The Mend sailed through auditions during last year's X Factor but were later removed from the competition for already having a manager; former Take That supremo Nigel Martin-Smith no less. But that rule doesn't exist on BGT and the boyband took full advantage with a fabulous twist on the Otis Redding classic (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay.

Their singing and harmonies were terrific, and they look the part too. I'm not convinced a boyband will win Britain's Got Talent but there's no reason why that should be the case, and judged on this performance I think it's pretty certain that The Mend will feature a lot when the live TV stages are upon us.

One act who gained great comments, but whom I really didn't like, was the Twist & Pulse Dance Company.

In 2010 Twist & Pulse were my picks to win the competition; they were entertaining, amusing, slick, and two very likeable young men. They would finish as runners-up that year, and on Saturday night they were back with their own dance troupe. But the problem for me was instead of just being two dancers, there were now 20 or so dancers, all dressed in similar clothing and doing something we've seen many times before.

Twist & Pulse were colourful and incorporated humour into their act, but their Dance Company did nothing to raise a smile. Their performance looked scruffy and was more like a poor Diversity than an improved version of Twist & Pulse. They stand little chance of winning.

One more act did impress however, and that was 19-year-old songwriter Ryan O'Shaughnessy who chose to write a love song for a mystery girl in his life and sing it to the nation. The judges tried desperately to get the name of the girl from an embarrassed Ryan, but the young Dublin lad remained tight-lipped and proceeded to sing.

And it has to be said that when he did sing it was heart-melting and very touching, in fact, I'm not sure there was a dry eye in the house amongst the female contingent of the gripped audience. It was a beautifully written song and performed in exactly the right tone and mood.

This is a love story that is set to run and run with ITV teasing us with a clip of Ryan receiving a phone call from his mystery woman. But what did she say? If it wasn't I love you then I'm sure it would have been along the lines of, "You've got a good chance of winning Britain's Got Talent Ryan."

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