Britain's Got Talent: Star gymnasts Spelbound scoop £100,000 top prize

HOT Favourites Spelbound, the 13-strong acrobatic gymnast troupe, were last night crowned winners of Britain’s Got Talent. They scooped the £100,000 top prize, the chance to perform at the Royal Variety Show and a lucrative showbusiness career.

Spelbound beat off stiff competition from singing grandmother Janey Cutler, dancing dog act Tina and Chandi, and impressionist Paul Burling.

Their performance in the heats left the judges stunned, with Simon Cowell telling them: “I have never seen anything like that in my life.”

Amanda Holden praised the group as “absolutely faultless. Some of the stuff that was going on I didn’t think was humanly possible.”

The troupe, from Ashford, Middlesex, are aged from 12 to 25, and many started gymnastics training when they were just four.

An estimated TV audience of 12 million also watched street dance duo Twist and Pulse, boy band Connected, dancer Tobias Mead, soprano Liam McNally, drummer Kieran Gaffney and singer Christopher Stone in the grand final of the contest hosted by Ant and Dec.

Spellbound won Britain s Got Talent Spellbound won Britain's Got Talent

Forty of the best acts had battled through live semi-finals shown over five days before numbers were whittled down to 10.

AMONG the performers who failed to make the big time in this year’s series were a pole dancer from Belarus, celebrity lookalike troupe The Chippendoubles and a Lancashire man who performed an operatic duet with himself.

Jimmy Ford, the 75-year-old dancing “leprechaun” from Birmingham, and 47-year-old Glaswegian Stevie Starr who regurgitated inanimate objects also went home.

The winners can look forward to performing in front of the Queen at the Royal Variety Show at the London Palladium and a lucrative career. Hundreds of hopefuls had endured gruelling rounds of auditions in Glasgow, Manchester, Cardiff, Newcastle, Birmingham and London for a chance to appear in the semi-finals.

The hit show produced its first winner in 2007 with Carphone Warehouse manager Paul Potts, a pop opera tenor from Kingswood, South Gloucestershire.

The following year’s final was won by 14-year-old street dancer George Sampson from Warrington, Cheshire. Last year’s contest caused the greatest upset with favourite Susan Boyle losing out to street dance group Diversity. The Scot’s rendition of I Dreamed A Dream astonished the judges and attracted 11.2 million viewers.

It also prompted calls for a minimum age for performers after 10-year-old Hollie Steel burst into tears on stage. Hundreds of viewers rang to complain when she broke down because she messed up her version of Edelweiss. Hosts Ant and Dec and judge Amanda Holden dashed to the stage to comfort her.

The winners will headline this year’s Britain’s Got Talent tour which kicks off in Manchester on June 19 then tours the country. The shows are popular with bookmakers, with a million being wagered on the final.

Last year they breathed a sigh of relief at the outcome as they faced a £5million payout had Susan Boyle hit the jackpot.

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