I would have loved to have been a footballer like my great uncle Matt Busby, but I knew quite early on that I wasn't going to make the grade. Luckily I was told by the age of 13 that I wasn't good enough. That's not a bad thing. You see this 'X Factor' generation of kids now who don't accept that they're not good enough.
I never know what is going to have that 'X' factor and what isn't.
You see on 'Britain's Got Talent' and 'X Factor,' they all wear ear plugs. But I could not hear myself when I wore them. So that is where the strong voice came from.
It's fantastic that 'Strictly' is beating 'The X Factor' for many reasons - but one of the main reasons is I think it's a fantastic piece of variety television. It is live, varied TV whereby we are really hanging ourselves out by the seam of our pants.
Strictly' is the most successful reality format in the world - it's in the 'Guinness Book of Records' - going to 38 countries. 'X Factor' hasn't done that.
X Factor' creates a Christmas single that puts money in other people's pockets. Whereas 'Strictly''s not out to do that, at all. That's why I stand up for it - it isn't car-crash television.
The X Factor' - I watch it because I'm always searching for talent to use in my musicals, so they do all the groundwork for me.
With 'The X Factor' I think the audiences have lost faith and trust in it so that's its problem. You want to be watching something real and dynamic and something you can trust and believe in.
What's amazing with 'The X Factor' is that it gives people a chance who wouldn't normally have one. I couldn't go on it, because it would be, like, me being lazy, because I've definitely had my opportunities.
I don't watch 'The X Factor' any more. Why do I want to see someone say the same old thing - it's all they've ever dreamed about - then lose and burst into tears and go into neurosis? They just want to be famous - it doesn't matter how.
