All those shows and performances for this?
On one level, Let It Shine was a crowd-pleasing Saturday night talent show that helped showcase some of the most exciting young performers in the country. On another, it was millions of pounds’ worth of free advertising (at the licence fee payer’s expense) for Gary Barlow’s new theatrical production.
Now that may seem an especially cynical point of view and maybe it is a tad unfair. After all, what’s the real harm if the viewers have been enthralled and entertained by the weekly storylines of excited hopefuls, and the contestants themselves are given a golden chance to shine in the limelight?
Well it does start to feel like we’ve all been shortchanged when you delve into the reality of the situation. Hands up who thought that winning act Five to Five were going to play the members of Take That – or least a pop group of some sort – in the touring theatre show?
No? Well at the very least they’d be starring cast members in some way, shape or form? Not really? Okay, well…they get a show-stopping number to themselves and few lines each, surely? Nope.
The truth is that the young hopefuls who make up Five to Five won’t have any spoken lines in the production at all. Not one. Instead, according to The Stage, they’ll essentially be the chorus line. The main story is about five 16-year-old girls who are fans of Take That.
Which makes you wonder why the show was hyped up as being such a life-changing opportunity for a group of talented kids who very likely won’t even be able to branch out alone because they’ll be under contract and likely exclusivity clauses. So much for letting them shine…
So the band who won Let It Shine are not even the stars of Gary Barlow's Take That musical? They're the chorus line.
Bad form that, BBC1.— IAN HYLAND (@HylandIan) March 5, 2017
excuse me? Well, what a shit shower!!!
— 💙Juliette Julz 💋 (@julesywoolsey) March 5, 2017
that's taking the piss a bit. Knew it wasn't about Take That but thought it was about a band. Feel that's a bit of cheating.
— MJG (@1966MJG) March 5, 2017
Ay?? Thought that the point of the whole thing?! 😲
— Kath Wilson (@katsitter) March 5, 2017
I wondered why Graham Norton gave an interview saying he wasn't sure what the prize was. Thought it was weird they didn't act
— Laura Weston (@LauLauWeston) March 5, 2017
think of the time us dad's have wasted on our phones whilst the wife and kids watched a fake show. Shocking.
— Jon Crossland 🏴 (@JonCrossland1) March 5, 2017
https://twitter.com/John_Mather/status/838471562001010689
https://twitter.com/ENankervis/status/838478838061490177
https://twitter.com/Pat13Langho/status/838476678686965763
