Faith Central: Susan Boyle and other faith-fuelled singers

Two years ago it was Paul Potts, the snaggle-toothed Welsh mobile phone salesman, who was propelled to international stardom by Britain’s Got Talent, the ITV entertainment show.

But the programme’s producers believe that they have found an even more unlikely global singing success among this year’s contestants, in the form of a reclusive 48-year-old woman from a small Scottish village, who lives alone with her cat, Pebbles.

Viewers of the first episode of the show’s new series, tomorrow at 7.45pm, will see Susan Boyle impress the usually caustic Simon Cowell, one of the programme’s three judges, into silence.

In 2007 Potts became one of the world’s most unexpected singing successes after winning the show’s £100,000 prize and the chance to perform for the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance.

As the shy Welshman took to the stage during auditions, Cowell and Piers Morgan, a fellow judge, winced as he said that he had come “to sing opera”.

But after he began the first bars of Puccini’s Nessun Dorma, their knowing smiles turned to looks of disbelief. Since then Potts's album, One Chance, has sold more than four million copies, and topped the charts in 14 countries.

The stage is set for Ms Boyle, unemployed, from West Lothian, to follow the same path. Viewers will see her initial awkwardness as she walks on stage after telling the show’s hosts, Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, better known as Ant and Dec, that she hopes to make the audience “rock”. She then perplexes the judges by gyrating her hips and claiming that she wants to be as famous as Elaine Paige, the actress and singer.

As soon as she begins singing I Dream A Dream, from the musical Les Misérables, however, everyone in the auditorium falls silent, before erupting into a standing ovation.

Afterwards Morgan said: “Without doubt that was the biggest surprise I’ve had in three years of this show. When you stood there with that cheeky grin everyone was laughing at you. No one is laughing now. That was stunning. I’m reeling from shock.”

Andrew Llinares, executive producer for TalkbackThames, the programme maker, said: “She was a complete revelation. Everyone was cynical about her. She’s a woman who’s grown up in a tiny little village and has never got married.

“I think the expectation was that she wasn’t going to be any good. But that’s what’s sensational about the show. No one saw it coming.”

Other acts who impress the judges include a North London dance troupe who call themselves Flawless. Viewers should also pay particular attention to the Greek Cypriot father and son pairing of Demetrios Demetriou and his son, Lagi, 14, who perform a Greek version of Michael Flatley’s Riverdance, to great comic effect.

Britain’s Got Talent is one of the juggernauts of British television, regularly attracting more than 12 million viewers, and sometimes 14 million.

Last year’s final, won by George Sampson, peaked at 60 per cent of the viewing audience, making it the highest-rated entertainment programme of the decade, alongside I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!

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