Singing for their starring chance

NOT so much Operatunity as Operatunity Knocks. This looks like opera's variation on Pop Idol as hopefuls compete for the chance to sing in an English National Opera production at the London Coliseum, but turns out to be rather more serious.

There's no Simon Cowell being beastly to contestants, mainly because they can actually sing. The judges see their job as encouraging and cajoling them at auditions with the aim of bringing out the best in them.

The idea of uncovering "a remarkable hidden talent" is ambitious. As one judge noted: "I think we might be a little bit crazy to undertake it".

But there were some very talented singers emerged from the processions of hopefuls, who included a roofer, security guard, student, ex-policeman who'd posed for the UK Studs calendar, blind mother-of-three, and supermarket checkout woman.

There were remarkable stories about frustrated singing ambitions that clearly touched the judging panel.

The first programme reduced the 100 selected to audition to just 20. They'll take part in a weekend of classes and training before six are chosen for the final. Just as the North-East was represented by Zoe in Pop Idol, so the region's hopes are being kept alive by former tree surgeon John Foley, from Murton, who sang his way through to the next round.

The dream of Mike and his wife Orange (not a printing error, that's really her first name) Trevillion was to open a hotel. So they sold up in Bath and bought a two star, 17-bedroom hotel overlooking St Michael's Mount on the Cornish Riviera.

Living The Dream showed how a dream can become a nightmare. Not least was coping with long hours, which other hoteliers suggested was the hardest part of the job. You have to be up before the guests at breakfast time and can't go to bed before the last one has gone to bed.

Finding himself working from seven in the morning to past midnight, Mike was having no life outside the hotel. It had happened to him in the past and he said he was determined it wouldn't happen again.

He needed sleep, the hotel itself needed a makeover. But rebuilding involved borrowing money and closing the hotel for two months while the work was carried out. The main problem was pinpointed by his "fashionable London architect" brother Andy - the building was one of the ugliest he'd seen in Cornwall, but had one of the best views.

Orange brought in a ghostbuster to exorcise spirits from the medieval dining room. Daughter Rosie left of her own accord. She didn't like life - or rather, the lack of life - in Cornwall and returned to her old school as a boarder. Son Duncan found surfing preferable to helping out in the hotel during his gap year.

Then there was the AA inspector who called to sample the food on the very night that the head chef was off and a new, inexperienced second chef was in the kitchen. It was like expecting someone to audition for Operatunity with a cold and sore throat.