Pro-amateur

Yes, I was one of the over ten million who dipped into Britain's Got Talent on Saturday night. Simon Cowell was excited to see a singing dog, Wendy, and her owner, 61 year-old French ventriloquist Marc Metral.

Odd that, in 2012, America's Got Talent (executive producer -Simon Cowell) brought us a talking dog, Irving, and his owner, ventriloquist Todd Oliver.



Meanwhile Marc is "competing" - surely Simon can't be paying him ? - for a spot in the Royal Variety Performance. He's not unfamiliar with British royalty, have been booked to perform at a private event in Buckingham Palace in 1988 for Princess Diana and her guests - though at that stage, the dog mask had not been developed.

Meanwhile, here's a nearly-talking dog.

• Saturday night saw the return of Atlantis from its cold store near Chepstow, for its last run-out,(barring online repeats via BBC3 ?), on BBC1. 2.57m (12.4%) watched according to the overnights. This is, apparently, called "burning off" in television scheduling parlance.