Young at heart
30 Aug 08
Leave the cocoa in the tin and keep the slippers in the drawer, because these feet were made for dancing!
Twinkle-toed grandfather Cyril Grant isn’t your typical octogenarian. He’s on a mission to prove that age is only a number, and that he has got what it takes to win The X Factor. And on tonight’s performance, who could disagree with him?
“I am 80-years old but I feel half my age,” Cyril tells Dermot in the holding room: “it’s a beautiful feeling!”
“I’m here because I have a feeling I can win it, I’ve wanted to be a big star all my life, it was one of my big dreams. I want to prove that you are never too old to make it.”
Inside the audition room Cyril smiles at the judges, tells them his age, and that he is here to win. Simon likes his attitude and Cheryl says: “You look fantastic!”
Cyril then starts singing Hey Good Looking whilst enthusiastically tapping his feet and swaying his hips to the rhythm. He performs his song facing the cameras to the side instead of looking at the judges. They try in vain to get his attention by waving their arms, but it doesn’t seem to matter, everyone thoroughly enjoys his audition.
“I thought you were fantastic!” beams Cheryl.
“He’s a showman,” states Simon: “a born showman and a great dancer” agrees Louis.
The inevitable four yeses later, and Cyril has made it to bootcamp, the first 80-year old through of the series… the first of many perhaps?