Musicality (C4): THE judges of this talent show to find musical theatre stars are so much nicer, both to contestants and each other, than the trio on The X Factor.

There, presenter Kate Thornton has to keep bickering Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh apart while an angry Sharon Osbourne seethes with resentment in the middle.

Much as I love that show, it was refreshing to watch voice coach Mary King, choreographer Stacey Haynes and musical director Gareth Valentine at work in Musicality. They laughed, they joked, they had a good time and they ended the auditions by having a singsong round the piano.

C4 obviously hopes this will spark as good a reaction as its previous search for an opera star, Operatunity. I think they might succeed, although finding enough good contestants wasn't as easy as you might think.

The winner gets the chance to step into the shoes of the star of a West End musical and appear on the London stage for the night.

The judges had eight days to see over 200 performers picked from the initial 2,000 applicants. Hopefuls ranged from car parts sales rep Penny, who was described as "fearless", to 23-year-old Rebecca, who'd had had a baby four weeks previously.

She put the judges in a dilemma because of her lack of height. At 4ft 9ins, they doubted there would be any musical roles for her, only comedy parts. "Can we say no because she's tiny?," they asked. The answer, harsh as you may feel it was, was that they could indeed reject her for being small.

The London auditions produced far more capable men than women. Stacey was depressed by the poor standard of dancing. There were decent singers but they moved like planks.

Not that she said that to their faces. The judges, unlike Cowell and co., aren't rude to the people auditioning. They encourage them, get out of their chairs and try different improvisations to bring out the best in the contestants.

"She was a little too creative with tune for me," was about the harshest thing they said of anyone.

They were even worried that unemployed Adele was too sensitive to be put through to the tough next round. She managed to convince them otherwise.

As they moved on to the regional auditions, Stacey was still worried by the lack of decent dancers as auditionees were displaying a startling lack of even basic co-ordination.

If their movement was poor, much of the singing was pretty good. Valentine discovered that ex-Ministry of Defence training officer Alex had that rarest of singing talents, an amazing falsetto voice.

Nineteen-year-old plumber's assistant Warren was another surprise with his tuneful singing and energetic dancing. Valentine was clearly impressed. "If that's the Warren, I want to be the rabbit," he said, after the lad had left the room. When was the last time you heard Simon Cowell make a joke?

Published: 04/11/2004