Acts with talent aim for TV final

A 20-stone drag queen and a 17-year-old rugby-playing singer from Staffordshire are among the acts hoping to follow Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle and dance group Diversity into the final of Britain's Got Talent.

Stafford's Peter Coghlan, aka Mama Trish, and Lichfield schoolboy Shaun Smith have made it through to the last 40 for the chance to perform before the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance later this year.

They will be joined in their semi-final tonight by escapologist Merlin Cadogan from Barnstaple in Devon, impersonator Gareth Oliver from Halifax, rapper DJ Talent from London, two dance groups, Flawless from London and Hot Honeyz from Maidstone and singer Jamie Pugh from Blackwood, Gwent. Only two will go through to the grand final on Saturday.

It will be the first time both Staffordshire hopefuls have performed their act live before millions of avid television viewers, with the public voting for their favourite.

Peter Coghlan, a 48-year-old father-of-two has promised an even more outrageous performance when he appears on the show again.

He has said his act will be aimed specifically at Cowell, who savaged his previous performance.

Shaun, a 17-year-old student at the Friary School, will be performing a different song to Ain't No Sunshine, which wowed the judges two weeks ago.

The rugby player said while he could not say what the song would be it did have more emotional scope for him to explore.

He said: "I'm so excited now. I'm overwhelmed, I didn't expect to get this far at all. I only entered to see if I could do it and I never thought I would get this far in my wildest dreams.

"I am really starting to believe in myself and I want this more and more the further I go on."

Bookmaker William Hill now rates Susan Boyle as its 8/13 favourite to win the talent contest.