THE Missing People Choir which features the father of York chef Claudia Lawrence, has been voted through to the Britain's Got Talent final.

In what presenters Ant and Dec called the tightest semi-final yet, both the choir and Malawian comic Daliso Chaponda will return to the stage in tonight's final alongside nine other acts.

The choir, made up of relatives and friends of people who have gone missing, and backed by Kate McCann, are the long-running favourites in the competition, but came second in the semi-final behind Chaponda.

The group includes Peter Lawrence the father of Darlington-born chef Claudia Lawrence, who has been missing for eight years.

The line-up also features the sister of missing Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards, Peter Boxell and Denise Horvath-Allan, whose children have both been missing for 28 years.

Earlier, judge Simon Cowell had said he was "rooting" for the choir but added there was a "lot of expectation" on them.

During their moving semi-final performance, photos of dozens of missing people were shown above the stage while the audience held white lights in the air.

The group were formed by the Missing People charity and their first audition, which brought the judges to tears, was a performance of I Miss You, a song penned by Boxell which also includes lyrics written by schoolgirl Alice Gross, who was murdered in 2014 aged 14.

Mrs McCann, the mother of Madeline McCann, is an ambassador for the charity Following their vote into the final, the charity's posted on Twitter: "Can't believe our #MissingPeopleChoir have made it to the #BGT finals! Thanks for all of your support, votes + donations. Back tomorrow."

Chaponda, who was Amanda Holden's golden buzzer act, is now favourite to take the crown and thus become the first comedian to win the talent show in its 11-year history.

His family were flown in from across the world to watch his semi-final performance.

Singer Jamie Lee Harrison narrowly missed out in a place in the final as he finished third although the judges are yet to choose their one wildcard act from across the five semi-finals.

* The Britain's Got Talent final is on ITV tonight at 7.30pm.