Opera on TV

 On Saturday night I was in the wings of the Blackpool Winter Gardens stage, about to go on to perform wot the usual crowd of 3,000 or so, but there the similarity with my oper a day job ends. Standing in the wings with me are my collaborator Elsie Diamond, Ant and Dec sharing a joke with us, and the original 'Nancy' from the 1968 film Oliver!, the inimitable Shani Wallis (aged 93). We were indeed about to go on to sing for 3,000 people in the auditorium, but also 10 million viewers back home, and of course Simon Cowell.