Britain's Got Talent / Mike Norman / 25 May 2011 /

In the penultimate audition show Mike Norman was very impressed with a seven-year-old Frank Sinatra-like crooner, whilst a couple of teenage rappers also caught the eye.

We're nearly there folks, last Saturday's audition show was the penultimate one of the series with just one more to follow this weekend, and then it's on to the live TV stages of the competition with five live semi-finals before the final itself.

Betfair have had some markets up for a while now, and in both those markets there was some definite movement after Saturday's entertaining show.

The reason for the movement was arguably the appearance of pint-sized crooner Robbie Firmin from Chatham. At just seven-years-old Robbie is likely to be the youngest contestant in the live shows after he wowed the audience with a fantastic rendition of Frank Sinatra's My Way. Dressed in a Rat Pack-style suite and Trilby Hat, the youngster was word perfect throughout, confident, and extremely charming, and received resounding yeses from judges Louis Walsh, Amanda Holden and Michael McIntyre.

Six-year-old singer Connie Talbot was runner-up in this competition in 2007 after an equally-stunning performance in her audition. It's impossible at this stage not to envisage Robbie sailing through his semi-final and making a huge impression on the British public, just like Connie did. I'm not saying he is the winner at this stage, but you can start spreading the news, he is definitely towards the top of my shortlist.

There's very little liquidity in both Betfair's markets currently, but the Solo Male option went from [1.6] to [1.3] in the Individual or Group market after Robbie's performance, whilst the Male option went from [1.74] to [1.5] in the Male or Female market.

Saturday's show was jam-packed with variety entertainment, which is exactly what Britain's Got Talent sets out to do. Opening the show were David and Karen, finally a magic act worthy of gracing the BGT stage. There wasn't a sequin, a rabbit, or a card-trick in sight when these two performed a jaw-dropping illusion, and with the promise of more physical grand illusions to come I really hope they make it to the live semi-final.

Also impressing to a certain extent were dance troupe Abyss, and talented pianist Paul Gbegbaje. Abyss were in exactly the same mould as previous winners Diversity, except they weren't as good so stand about as much chance of winning as an unnamed Premier League footballer remaining anonymous. Gbegbaje was far more polished however. At just 19-year-old he is a self-taught piano player, and a very good one at that. If he can be note (or is it key?) perfect during his semi-final performance then there's no reason why he shouldn't be in the live final.

The final act to impress on Saturday was rap duo Follow The Right Path, aka best friends Jamie and George.

The fascinating aspect about these two was that they gave the impression that they were going to be dreadful, admitting beforehand that they hadn't performed their act previously. And when George told the judges that they don't rap about, "How hard we are and stuff", it looked like we had a train crash TV moment about to happen. But what followed was something very special and moving. The duo performed a magical rap tribute to their late grandfathers and it was an absolute pleasure to witness it.

From a purely talent point of view Follow The Right Path might just fall a bit short of what is required to win a show of this magnitude, but when you see kids turn adversity into a positive then they have to be encouraged. There'll be no better way to encourage these two, and millions of other watching teenagers, than for the British public to pick up the phone and vote for them and get them into the live final.

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