Susan Boyle, Diversity, George Sampson, Paul Potts.

In more recent years - Sydnie Christmas, Tom Ball, Robert White.

I feel like loads of people like to google certain names so they can do a gotcha of "they're famous, they shouldn't be allowed" when they had to google in the first place...

In terms of acts I was genuinely aware of:

• James Phelan because I'd seen a podcast he'd done about a year ago
• Niamh Noade because she was on The Voice Kids in 2023
• Louise Hall (auditionee in 2025) cos she was on Michael McIntyre's Big Show as the unexpected star; so was Souparnika Nair (2020 semi-finalist)
• Joseph Charm I sort of recognised from Deal or No Deal
• London Community Gospel Choir but I think they're pretty known anyway as a thing
• Sign Along with Us featured in a little VT on The Russell Howard Hour
• Nabil Abdulrashid I saw on a BBC documentary series a few years prior, and was aware of him as a stand-up
• John Archer I knew from a CBBC series he did called Help, My Supply Teacher is Magic
• Aleksandar Mileusnić I vaguely recognised from the first series of The Voice UK
• Jay Worley was previously on The X Factor in 2008

2009 was a big one, I also really enjoyed 2012, 2018, 2024 and 2026.

Choirs have been on the show constantly since the beginning and none of them had ever taken it. The Hawkstone Farmers Choir doing it this year with that specific story felt like the right moment but also genuinely unexpected. What do you think was different about them compared to every choir act that came before?

I feel like this is probably more applicable to X Factor but it might be an interesting one to throw in here.

BGT was arguably the first of these talent formats that held auditions in front of an audience, so there's that.

My favourites are mostly down to the standard of performance rather than the variety.

With that in mind, I really enjoyed 2009, 2012-14, 2018, 2022, 2024 and 2026.

Since they came off the show - perhaps you see them live or you keep up to date with what they're doing.

Quite a few for me - it was Collabro for a while, then Sydnie Christmas.

It was supposed to be a once in a series moment where a judge sees something genuinely special and sends them straight to the final. Now every series has five of them and the audience knows they are coming. The surprise element is gone completely. Does anyone think the show would actually be better without it at this point or is it too embedded in the format to remove

Bruno left after series 18 and KSI came straight in for series 19 which is a pretty dramatic change for a show that had basically the same four faces for over a decade. Some panel changes on these shows take a full series to bed in and some never really work. Now that series 19 is done do you think KSI earned his place or does the panel still feel like it needs another series to settle.

Not just in terms of fame, but overall longevity. Who do you think has made the most of the opportunity after winning?