That’s showbiz?

The Britain's Got Talent stage, complete with buzzers

WE WERE promised a final to remember and, in the end, Britain’s Got Talent proved to be astonishing, event television. But will it also end up being remembered as a moment when our cultural tastes underwent a subtle shifted?

Certainly, the attention focused on it served to break a great British tradition. In the pubs, clubs, supermarkets, parks and at the many barbecues that were fired up as summer finally arrived over the weekend, few were talking about anything other than Simon Cowell’s vaudeville vehicle. Expelled to the back pages, away from talking points, you could find the FA Cup Final. Despite its still-huge worldwide audiences, which have risen as high as two billion people in the past, this event that once brought the nation together in front of the television screen was reduced to a sideshow, as everyone instead focused on Susan Boyle and her extraordinary rise to global prominence.

It wasn’t her night in the end, finishing second to dance troupe Diversity. She seemed to echo the view of the nation by lauding them as deserving winners. That may be because winning really doesn’t matter. Boyle, unkindly dubbed the Hairy Angel on account of a visual image totally at odds with her voice, has – according to some accounts – an £8m future ahead of her, and counts Hollywood A-listers such as Demi Moore among her most famous fans.

It was undoubtedly SuBo’s story that provided the dramatic pull for this series. In fact, as reality talent shows go, it was the tale to end all tales. Some seven weeks ago, she was the cat lady from Blackburn, a church volunteer and spinster whose life had been bound up in caring for her mother until she died in 2007. She had been bullied at school for her learning difficulties, and ridiculed in adult life in her West Lothian home town.

When she first auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent, no one – not even ringmaster Cowell – was prepared for what came out of her mouth. The smile that crept across his features as what he had on his hands dawned may well be considered a moment of TV gold in years to come. That audition has attracted over 100 million hits on YouTube, and became a genuine story on the other side of the Atlantic, where developing social technology – Moore’s tweets, in particular – bred greater still popularity.

By Monday, this rags-to-riches story had taken a somewhat sinister tone. Police had been called to Boyle’s hotel after she was reported “acting strangely”. They were also on hand to escort her to The Priory. Following on, a variety of alleged experts and star witnesses appeared on our screens to contradict one another, including in their number the judges Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden.

Though not Cowell. Although most people will now admit to a fondness for the man, he remains a divisive figure within the entertainment industry. This is put down partly to his combative character – telling it like it is – and old-fashioned envy at his ability to come up with winner after winner. As a consequence, last week’s newspapers and reports were quickly filled with dark mutterings about Boyle’s state of mind. In the run-up to Saturday’s final, fragility and unpreparedness had become the preeminent story, particularly following Holly Steel’s spectacular implosion on the final semi-final on Friday night.

A variety of talking heads, from a disgruntled ex-Big Brother psychiatrist to the charity Kidscape, worried hugely. Pressure became the key word, and Boyle’s and Steel’s fortunes became linked in an effort to prove the concerns. The somewhat careless handling of another semi-finalist, 10-year-old Natalie Okri, who was sent from the stage in floods of tears after being knocked out, was also cited as evidence that the show puts entertainment ahead of contestants’ welfare. The spate of speculation eventually elicited comment from Cowell when, at the judges’ table during the final, and following another stellar performance from one of his young charges, he argued that if they’re good enough, they’re old enough.

Only time will tell if Britain’s Got Enough Mental Resilience remains the story, but ever thus was Tin Pan Alley. However, voting intentions around Britain’s Got Talent might provide a more durable tale of our times. Why did Boyle not win when it was widely assumed that all she had to do was turn up? How did Julian Smith, a talented musician but with supposed limited appeal and viewed very much as a final makeweight, finish third? Why didn’t Stavros Flatley, much touted as recession relievers, make the last three? How did all the predictions get it so, so wrong?

Of course, it may have been down to the performances. Diversity were nothing short of stunning, particularly in the imagination that 20-year-old choreographer Ashley Banjo applied to the group’s performance. But a resistance to Boyle could be felt building in the days leading up the final. Maybe the adverse stories had done their work on public thinking. Or maybe people had exercised their first opportunity to vote following the still-unfolding controversy over MPs’ expenses. Could Boyle possibly be a casualty of electorate anger still very much in evidence?

Only a day ahead of a real election, the benefits of such research would be moot. We’ll know at the weekend if politics is about to reap the wild wind it has stirred. However, as an inquiry into perceived impotence and universal exasperation at the iniquitous exercising of power felt by people in this country – many of whom have only put the matter of the banks’ wrecking of our economy to one side for the time being – it may prove useful.

Once the winner was announced, Boyle endeared herself once again by accepting defeat. “The best people won,” she said. “That’s showbiz.” It may turn out that what happened on Britain’s Got Talent was far more than just entertainment.