Mixed messages

So it could be that ITV is saved not by a cigar-chomping, hot-shot show-biz executive but by a spinster from a Scottish village. The appearance of Susan Boyle in the first semi-final of Britain’s Got Talent (ITV, all week) was greeted with adoration — and audience figures — that would have been apt if Maria Callas had returned from the dead. Miss Boyle looked rapturously happy, and it was impossible not to feel delighted for her. She has had an unsung life of some difficulty; now, thanks to the internet, she is famed and celebrated around the world. Jay Leno, the American late-night talk-show host, sang dressed as her. There are politicians who would sacrifice their second homes allowance for such lavish, affectionate mockery.

But I have reservations. Miss Boyle is a fine singer, if not of the very first rank. Even a layman like me can spot that she has trouble with the lower notes, as she did this week performing ‘Memory’.