If you’re anything like me and there’s really nothing to suggest that you would be, but if you are anything like me you will be a telly addict for the find-some-talent-make-a-buck TV shows on ITV. The most recent of these which has super glued me to my television set in recent weeks is the now infamous Britain’s Got Talent in which the plucky Ant and Dec travel the length and breadth of the country in search of the aforementioned talent in a noble quest to make amends for all the talent that goes undiscovered in Britain each year. (The country is currently in the grip of a horrendous ‘Talent Crunch’ running at a massive 75% undiscovered talent in July alone! The stats speak for themselves!)

But when these quality pieces of televisual entertainment reach climax then go to sleep, our lives seem a little less worth living and a burning feeling begins in the stomach then moves to the forefinger (something like hunger but not quite starvation). Who or what can fill this cavernous void that’s been etched into my blackened heart?

After the first genius packed series of Britain’s Got Talent I had this rather long thought that may equally be described as a musing: “That was the high point in seventy years of television, and unless Jeremy Beadle faked his own death in some sick publicity stunt and is about to return with a new show called Beadles Greatest Gag then we will never reach those heady heights again”.

The winner of the first Britain’s Got Talent was the rather fun Paul Potts who would waddle onto the stage and sing a version of Nessun Dorma that was about 80% as good as Pavarotti. Called me old fashioned but if your only 80% as good as the best then you’re not a worthy of ‘mantel taking’ and should shut up. Sorry Paul.

My personal favourite from the first epic series was the little girl who sang Somewhere over the Rainbow through blighted teeth. I could have researched her name but as you will know this blog is not based on mere facts alone!

The most recent series saw the demonic Simon Cowell flexing his sadistic muscle and hair all over the nation, covering us all in cutting puss filled words like some demented real world Voldemort. He was once again accompanied on his mission of evilness and tears but his pair of trusty death eaters; Piers “Why am I famous?” Morgan and Samantha Holden, the temptress who toyed with the emotions of our beloved national treasure Sir Les Denis only to cast him off like a dead barnacle when she had sucked the much needed publicity from his shrived and gangrenous corpse. (Allegedly)

But this year Simon “Voldemort” Cowell came up against George “Harry Potter” Sampson, his deadliest adversary to date who waved his mystical dance based wand over the nation and cast magic spells with rain and shoes. (Just to let you know I’m going to stop using this NAME>HARRY POTTER NAME>SURNAME thing right now as I think it’s becoming increasingly tired.)

The public went crazy for tiny little George Sampson and his rather large and rather unruly extended family, feeling that although they did not appear to be totally couth; their hearts where in the right places and they and supported ‘their boy’.

In street Hoody boy talk – George Sampson busted out some bad ass Singing’ In The Rain flex that made everyone else look like pussy hose!

The reason for my rather shameful act of defiance against the beautiful English language is the fact that after the furore had died down George plus family prepared to rejoin the real world, but then a rather amazing thing happen. The producers of the hit West End show “INTO THE HOODS” had a brain wave that went a little something like this.

George Sampson + Into the Hoods = Even better Into The Hoods

Lawyers where soon consulted and contracts signed, meaning that Mr Sampson will be joining the cast of INTO THE HOODS for the final four weeks of the show’s run from August 4th to August 30th. He will play one of the children who gets lost in the ‘hoods’ in this hip-hop re-working of Stephen Sondheim’s magical musical Into The Woods.

On their dance-driven, move-making mission, the wandering youths come across a host of fun and funky footwork geniuses, including Spinderella, Lil Red and Rap-on-Zel, amongst others…

So, is Sampson ‘Bad Boy’ enough for ZooNation’s INTO THE HOODS? Only time and the amazing YouTube clips will tell.

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Into The Hoods Tickets Click Here to Buy