Britain's Got Talent 2011: Let the show commence

Britain's Got Talent / Mike Norman / 13 April 2011 /

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The Britain's Got Talent 2011 judges

"So if one drunken night in the last few months your mate videoed you on his Blackberry doing cartwheels down the road whilst juggling a few slices of pizza, then don’t be surprised if you get a call from ITV sometime in May!"

Britain's Got Talent returns on Saturday so our resident Reality TV addict Mike Norman outlines what we've got in store for you over the coming weeks.

Brace yourselves Britain, the craziest - but at the same time wonderfully-entertaining - show on TV returns to our screens this weekend with the commencement of series five of Britain's Got Talent.

The show that first introduced us to platinum-selling artists and international superstars Paul Potts and Susan Boyle (and a few dance troupes!) will once again be hoping to launch the career of a previously unknown act, all in the cause of lining Simon Cowell's pocket whilst at the same time finding someone to fill a three minute slot at this year's Royal Variety Performance.

Of course, Betfair will be following the show very closely, and as soon as we've seen enough acts to form a market we will get one up so that you can have a flutter on who you think will be this year's winning singer/dancer/fruitcake. In the meantime I'll be here after each audition show highlighting the best and worst of the weekend's acts.

The format is much the same as in previous years - the auditions have already concluded and ITV will be showing weekly highlights for the next five or six weeks, followed by a full week (Monday to Friday) of live semi-finals, concluding with the live final on a Saturday night - probably at the same time as the BBC are planning to show an episode of Casualty where the hospital blows up. It's all about ratings you see, and Mr Cowell knows exactly how to pull the audience in.

That's why Cowell has taken a back seat this year. For the first time he isn't a judge; and neither is USA-stardom-seeking Piers Morgan. Instead Cowell has employed loudmouth comedian Michael McIntyre and hard-to-bare David 'The Hoff' Hasselhoff to do the judging. But don't despair; Amanda Holden is still with us!

There was also a slight difference in how you could audition this year. For the first time ever you could send in Youtube clips of your act. A shortlist has been drawn up and a few will even make it to the live semi-finals. So if one drunken night in the last few months your mate videoed you on his Blackberry doing cartwheels down the road whilst juggling a few slices of pizza, then don't be surprised if you get a call from ITV sometime in May!

And if you don't get a call then please feel free to get involved with us. Tell us who impresses you the most as the auditions progress by leaving comments on the BGT 2011 pages. I'll be back Monday morning with a review of the weekend. Catch you soon.

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