The Talent Show Story
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The Talent Show Story
''The Talent Show Story'' is a British television documentary series about the history of British television talent shows. The series comprises five episodes and was broadcast on ITV from 7 January to 4 February 2012. It is narrated by Victoria Wood. It was co-produced by Shiver Productions and Thames. Episode list * Episode 1: Exploring the history of televised talent contests, from the original '' Opportunity Knocks'' to today's super-slick shows such as '' The X Factor''. The first edition includes Susan Boyle discussing her 2009 breakthrough on '' Britain's Got Talent'', and examines Will Young's defeat of Gareth Gates in 2002's '' Pop Idol'', and how the noughties series ''Popstars'' ushered in a new era of programmes. There is also a tribute to former '' New Faces'' host Marti Caine and a contribution by ex-judge Nina Myskow. * Episode 2: How ''Britain's Got Talent'' brought variety back to the nation's TV screens, and Simon Cowell's transition from music mogul to househo ...
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Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood (19 May 1953 – 20 April 2016) was an English comedian, actress, lyricist, singer, composer, pianist, screenwriter, producer and director. Wood wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, plays, musicals, films and sitcoms over several decades and her live comedy act was interspersed with her own compositions which she performed at the piano. Much of her humour was grounded in everyday life and included references to activities, attitudes and products that are considered to exemplify Britain. She was noted for her skills in observational comedy and in satirising aspects of social class. Wood started her career in 1974 by appearing on, and winning, the ATV talent show ''New Faces''. She established herself as a comedy star in the 1980s, winning a BAFTA TV Award in 1986 for the sketch series '' Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV'' (1985–87), and became one of Britain's most popular stand-up comics, winning a second BAFTA for '' An Audience with Victoria Wood'' (1988). ...
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Entertainment
Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousands of years specifically for the purpose of keeping an audience's attention. Although people's attention is held by different things because individuals have different preferences, most forms of entertainment are recognisable and familiar. Storytelling, music, drama, dance, and different kinds of performance exist in all cultures and were supported in royal courts and developed into sophisticated forms, over time becoming available to all citizens. The process has been accelerated in modern times by an entertainment industry that records and sells entertainment products. Entertainment evolves and can be adapted to suit any scale, ranging from an individual who chooses a private entertainment from a now enormous array of pre-recorded p ...
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Pop Idol
''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and participation. Two series were broadcast, one in 2001–2002 and a second in 2003. An immense success when it launched in 2001, Maggie Brown in ''The Guardian'' wrote, "the show became a seminal reality/entertainment format once on air that autumn". Series judge Simon Cowell became a major public figure in entertainment, and the show produced instant No. 1 chart hits, including for the first series winner Will Young, whose single "Evergreen" was the fastest-selling debut in UK chart history and the best-selling song of 2002. ''Pop Idol'' was subsequently put on an indefinite hiatus after Simon Cowell announced the launch of ''The X Factor'' in the UK in April 2004. The show has become an international TV franchise since, spawning multiple '' ...
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Lenny Henry
Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer. Henry gained success as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in ''The Lenny Henry Show'' in 1984. He was the most prominent black British comedian of the time and much of his material served to celebrate and parody his African-Caribbean roots. In 1985, he cofounded the charity Comic Relief with the comedy screenwriter Richard Curtis. He has appeared in numerous other TV programmes, including children's entertainment show ''Tiswas'', sitcom ''Chef!'' and '' The Magicians'' for BBC One, and in his later years has transitioned toward acting roles in stage and screen. He appears in the Amazon Prime series '' The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power''.Otterson, Joe (3 December 2020)"'Lord of the Rings' Series at Amazon Adds 20 Actors to Cast" Variety. .Retrieved 4 December 2020. Henry is the Chancellor of Birmingham ...
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Amanda Holden
Amanda Louise Holden (born 16 February 1971) is an English actress, media personality, and singer. Since 2007, she has been a judge on the television talent show competition ''Britain's Got Talent'' on ITV. She also co-hosts the ''Heart Breakfast'' radio show with Jamie Theakston on weekday mornings. Holden played the title role in the musical stage show ''Thoroughly Modern Millie'' in 2004, for which she was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award. Her acting credits on television include ''The Grimleys'' (1998–2001), ''Kiss Me Kate'' (1999–2001), '' Cutting It'' (2002–2004), '' Wild at Heart'' (2006–2008), and ''Big Top'' (2009). Holden has also presented various television shows for ITV, including ''The Sun Military Awards'' (2009–2014), '' Superstar'' (2012), '' This Morning'' (2014–2015, 2017), ''Text Santa'' (2015), and '' Give a Pet a Home'' (2015). In 2013, Holden released her autobiography book, ''No Holding Back'', which became a ''Sunday Times'' be ...
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Dermot O'Leary
Seán Dermot Fintan O'Leary Jr. (born 24 May 1973) is an English broadcaster who currently works for ITV and BBC Radio 2. His radio career began when he worked as a disc jockey at Essex Radio, but he is best known for being the presenter of ''The X Factor'' (UK) on ITV, a position he held from 2007 until its final series in 2018, with the exception of 2015. Since 2021, O'Leary has presented ITV's '' This Morning'' on a Friday, School and Bank Holidays alongside Alison Hammond. Early life Seán Dermot Fintan O'Leary Jr. was born on 24 May 1973 in Colchester, Essex, the son of Irish parents Maria and Seán; he holds both British and Irish citizenship. He attended primary school in nearby Marks Tey and later joined St Benedict's Catholic College in Colchester. His relaxed attitude at school caused him to fail all but two of his GCSEs. Following that, O'Leary re-took his school-leaving qualifications. This allowed him to later start his A-Level courses at Colchester Sixth Form Coll ...
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Tony Hatch
Anthony Peter Hatch (born 30 June 1939) is an English composer for musical theatre and television. He is also a songwriter, pianist, arranger and producer. Early life and early career Hatch was born in Pinner, Middlesex. Encouraged by his musical abilities, his mother – also a pianist – enrolled him in the London Choir School in Wansunt Road, Bexley, Kent when he was 10. Instead of continuing at the Royal Academy of Music, he left school in 1955 and found a job with Robert Mellin Music in London's Tin Pan Alley. Not long after working as a tea boy, he was writing songs (under the name Mark Anthony) and entered the recording industry when he joined The Rank Organisation's new subsidiary Top Rank Records; there he worked for future Decca Records A&R man Dick Rowe. While he served his National Service, he became involved with the Band of the Coldstream Guards. On his return in 1959, Hatch began producing Top Rank artists such as Bert Weedon, the then unknown Ad ...
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Piers Morgan
Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan (; né O'Meara; born 30 March 1965) is a British broadcaster, journalist, writer, and television personality. He began his Fleet Street career in 1988 at '' The Sun''. In 1994, aged 29, he was appointed editor of the '' News of the World'' by Rupert Murdoch, which made him the youngest editor of a British national newspaper in more than half a century. From 1995, Morgan edited the ''Daily Mirror'', but was sacked in 2004. He was the editorial director of ''First News'' during 2006 to 2007. As a television presenter, Morgan has previously hosted the ITV talk show '' Life Stories'' from 2009 to 2021 as well as the CNN chat show ''Piers Morgan Live'' from 2011 to 2014. Morgan also co-presented the ITV Breakfast programme ''Good Morning Britain'' with Susanna Reid from 2015 to 2021, and was a judge on both '' America's Got Talent'' (2006–2011) and ''Britain's Got Talent'' (2007–2010). In 2008, he won '' The Celebrity Apprentice US'', appearing with ...
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Gary Barlow
Gary Barlow (born 20 January 1971) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He is the lead singer of the British pop group Take That. Barlow is one of the United Kingdom's most successful songwriters, having written thirteen number-one singles (ten with Take That, two solo, one with the Robbie Williams song "Candy") and twenty-four top-ten hits. As a solo artist, he has had three number-one singles, six top-ten singles and three number-one albums, and has additionally had seventeen top-five hits, twelve number-one singles and eight number-one albums with Take That. Barlow has also established himself as a talent show judge and television personality. He has judged on ''The X Factor UK'' (2011–2013), '' Let It Shine'' (2017), and ''Walk the Line'' (2021). Barlow has received six Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the award for Outstanding Services to British Music. He has sold ove ...
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Ant & Dec
Ant & Dec are a British television presenter, television presenting duo, consisting of Anthony McPartlin (born 18 November 1975) and Declan Donnelly (born 25 September 1975), from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Formed after their meeting as child actors on CBBC (TV channel), CBBC's drama ''Byker Grove'', they performed together as pop musicians PJ & Duncan, the names of their characters from the series. The duo have since pursued careers as television presenters, and currently host ''Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway'', ''I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (UK TV series), I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!'', ''Britain's Got Talent'', and ''Limitless Win''. Previous hosting credits include supporting Luca G on his live tour “The Mohawk” appearing in Stevenston’s Pop Inn and Dregin’s The Brae ''SMTV Live'', ''CD:UK'', ''Friends Like These'', ''Pop Idol'', ''PokerFace'', ''Ant & Dec's Push the Button, Push the Button'', ''Red or Black?'', and ''Text Santa''. They p ...
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Nigel Lythgoe
Nigel Lythgoe OBE (; born 9 July 1949), also known as Nasty Nigel, is an English television and film director and producer, television dance competition judge, former dancer in the Young Generation and choreographer. He was the producer of the shows ''Pop Idol'' and ''American Idol'' and is the creator and executive producer of ''So You Think You Can Dance'', on which he served as a permanent judge for the first sixteen seasons. He also created the 2009 competition '' Superstars of Dance''. Early life Born in Wallasey, Cheshire, to dockworker George Percival Lythgoe and Gertrude Emily Lythgoe, he became interested in dance at the age of ten. He began tap dancing, and went on to study at the Hylton-Bromley School of Dance and Drama and the Perry Cowell School of Dance, both in Wallasey, where he studied classical ballet, modern jazz, ballroom, character, classical Greek and National dance from various countries. Lythgoe's first professional job was in the ''corps de ballet'' ...
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Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur and record executive. He is the creator of ''The X Factor'' and ''Got Talent'' franchises which have been sold around the world. He has judged on the British television talent competition series ''Pop Idol'' (2001–2003), ''The X Factor (British TV series), The X Factor UK'' (2004–2010, 2014–2018) and ''Britain's Got Talent'' (2007–present), and the American television talent competition series ''American Idol'' (2002–2010), ''The X Factor (American TV series), The X Factor US'' (2011–2013), and ''America's Got Talent'' (2006–present). Cowell is the founder and sole owner of the British entertainment company Syco. After some success in the 1980s and 1990s as a record producer, talent scout and consultant in the UK music industry, Cowell came to public prominence in 2001 as a judge on ''Pop Idol'', a talent television show which he and its creator Simon Fuller successfull ...
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