Gin the dog

This made me happy when I read it. it's from a longer piece in praise of 'Britain's Got Talent' by Kira Cochrane, and is in fact the first time I've read or heard someone else say point out what I seemed to find throughout researching In Search of the English Eccentric:

'In Britain, it is usually only upper-class eccentricity that is celebrated and recognised, but Britain's Got Talent shows that eccentricity lurks in all corners of the land, and that it is entertaining, shameless, and often hilarious. While it might seem strange that a 74-year-old cleaner would want to dress up in a leotard and lie on a bed of nails, for instance, Joan Gallagher seemed to enjoy every minute in the spotlight. The programme offers up the weirdest acts - people who dance with illuminated hula hoops, in superhero costumes; who perform the Star Wars theme tune on a keyboard - re-arranged to make it more "spacey"; who whistle Nessun Dorma; who bring ferrets on stage to dance, and then have to hurry them off when they start trying to mate. Most respond well to the adversity of the judges; when Simon Cowell dubbed 20-year-old student Donald Bell-Gam "the worst singer we have had on Britain's Got Talent - completely and utterly horrific", Bell-Gam simply paused before responding with a screeching version of I Will Always Love You. If he was fazed, it didn't show.'

And following hard on her heels, here's Melanie Reid in the Times:

'Britain's Got Talent is a model for a competitive, compassionate, cohesive, colour-blind society that the politicians haven't quite managed to deliver. Telly got there before them. The show taps straight into some wellspring of happy ordinariness. It is endearing because it's an snapshot of British life: unpredictable; inspiring; sentimental; humorous: a celebration of national eccentricity. '