A pair of funeral singers were among the contestants who faced The X Factor judges last night.

Judges Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh and Dannii Minogue travelled to Belfast, Manchester and Birmingham for the fourth show in the new series.

In Belfast, 44-year-old twins Michelle and Julie Croghan performed for them. The funeral singers told the foursome they hoped to be the first twins to make the final. "The undertakers have been pushing us to come and audition," one of the twins said.

But before the performance even started things started to go wrong when Australian judge Danii Minogue mistook the women for men. After they sang, Simon Cowell said: "I've got to be honest girls, I'd want to throw myself in the coffin after that...you are like a couple of corpses."

Sharon Osbourne joined in the criticism adding: "When you sing, you have that mortuary look on your face, you sing nicely together but it's so depressing."

In Birmingham, it was the turn of IT worker Alison Clowes, 45, who paid for singing lessons and has been preparing for The X Factor for three years.

The judges were unimpressed with her rendition of James Blunt's You're Beautiful and suggested she get a refund from her singing teacher, who was also in the audition room.

Later on, in typical style, Cowell gave the father of contestant Kelly Northall, from Walsall a dressing down, saying his daughter sounded like "a dog barking". Northall shouted "w******" at the judges and fled the room.

Her father begged the judges to give her another go but Cowell said: "She is absolutely terrible and you are partly to blame for your daughter's disillusionment, you've obviously been encouraging her and that's just crazy" A security guard was called in to escort the family out of the room.

Other contestants on Saturday's show included Sam Donaghey, from Newcastle, who impressed Minogue; a topless dancer, who Cowell said has a great body; and 15-year-old Dominic, who was a big hit.

"For someone like you to come in, you look so hip, you've got great taste in music and you are your own person, it is really, really refreshing," said Osbourne.

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