8:35am Friday 5th June 2009
By David Barnett
I don’t normally get too excited about reality TV shows but I confess to a measure of some excitement at the final of Britain’s Got Talent last weekend.
Perhaps it’s because life is so unremittingly bleak at the moment that the sight of a few ordinary folk, singing, dancing and dangling anvils from their bottom lips is just the sort of diversion we need to take our minds off recession, MPs on the make and horrendous deaths.
Had I had any money to bet, I would have put it on Susan Boyle, because I was pretty sure she was going to win.
As it generally turns out in these competitions, winning isn’t all important. If contestants display true talent, then whichever TV show they’ve appeared on to showcase their talents can springboard them to a new life of fame and fortune. Look at Gareth Gates - anyone remember that he didn’t actually win Pop Idol, but came second to Will Young?
So dance act Diversity stealing the top spot by public vote from Susan Boyle, the girl from nowhere with the voice to make grown men weep, didn’t seem to matter at the time.
Now we know that it was perhaps a blessing in disguise. Since the weekend Boyle has apparently gone off to have something of a breakdown, in the full glare of the public gaze. Imagine what would have happened if she’d won?
There’s been a lot of talk about how the producers of Britain’s Got Talent let Susan Boyle down. A self-confessed loner who lived a quiet life with her cats in a rural Scottish backwater, she was ill-equipped for the rigours of instant fame, say critics of the show. More should have been done to prepare her for the onslaught.
Perhaps that’s true, although I for one don’t know for sure just how much the show’s people do for their contestants. Possibly, no amount of cossetting, preparation and coaching would have been enough for someone like Susan Boyle when the moment came for her life to change from one of quietly getting on with things to having the paparazzi dog her every step, camping out on her doorstep, and following her through hotel lobbies in the hope that she might flip them the finger or shout obscenities.
The root of the problem seems to be that we no longer find it satisfying just to enjoy the talent that many people have. Susan Boyle is a fantastic singer; that doesn’t mean that with her wonderful voice she comes ready-equipped to deal with the life of a Hollywood superstar.
But that’s what we expect. If you have talent, then you are celebrated. You are a celebrity. And, we decide, if you are a celebrity then you are public property.
It’s possible that Susan Boyle dreamed of fame. Then again, it’s just as likely that Susan Boyle merely dreamed of singing and sharing her talent.
Why must those with talent also have to conform to our rather childish expectations of how they should behave – ie, give up all hopes of a private life?
The sad saga of Susan Boyle might well put other people with equally strong gifts entering such TV talent shows. And that would be a shame. Britain has got talent, so let’s not make those who possess it feel too scared to let it show.
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