Any Dream Will Do - Chris bows out with dignity

Was it just terrible sound quality tonight or were there really a lot of mediocre performances? I, for one, was somewhat disappointed with a lot of the Josephs this evening. The diction and sound quality on the opening song was particularly poor, setting the scene for the rest of the evening.

The show opened with Ben and Craig - Ben has improved a great deal over the last couple of weeks but his song, “Addicted to Love,” just seemed too grown-up for him – he has a baby-faced image which really didn’t gel with the song. Andrew Lloyd Webber commented that he thought Ben could be in trouble this evening. He was followed by Craig singing The Four Seasons “Oh What a Night.” He sang it competently but once again his performance was somewhat bland – however the judges said for the first time so far that he could be a contender.

The next pair were Lewis and Rob. Whilst Lewis certainly has the looks to be a heartthrob Joseph, his singing seems to let him down rather. Singing “Dancing in the Moonlight,” admittedly not the easiest song, the judges told him he needed to get out of his comfort zone and show us something different. They also commented that whilst he had started strongly in the competition, he seemed to have regressed. Newly clean-shaven Rob the builder sang Take That’s “Back for Good.” Again the sound quality appeared to be poor, but Rob seemed very nervous and ill at ease and Bill Kenwright commented that he really wasn’t sure if Rob could hold his own on a West End Stage.

The performance of the evening came from Keith. Singing “Love is All Around,” he really shone through tonight and was rewarded by lavish praise from all the judges. He now has to be a serious contender – he may still need to rethink his hairstyle though! He was followed by hot favourite Lee singing “All Right Now.” Lee has suffered a throat infection this week and although he did not mention this himself, it was brought up by Graham Norton and the judges. It certainly wasn’t Lee’s best performance, although not the worst of the evening by a long way – although Zoe Tyler blatantly told him it was “a bit rubbish.”

The final pair were Chris and Daniel. Chris never seems to have recovered from his knock-back two weeks ago when he was in the sing-off. Tonight singing Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long,” he lacked sparkle and his dancing appeared to consist of marching up and down across the stage pointing at the audience. Daniel chose McFly’s “It’s All About You,” yet another smiley, happy song which he performed well but I had to agree with the judges who all said they needed to see something different from him now – Denise wants to see the naughty Daniel – no doubt quite a number of female viewers would like to see that too!

I don’t know whether Andrew Lloyd Webber realises how expressive his face is – but every time the camera pans on him during a contestant’s performance, you can see exactly what he thinks of it! Tonight he seemed to be grimacing rather than grinning at most of them.

This week the Josephs were sent to the set of Les Miserables to try their hand at performing the barricades scene. This was somewhat interesting and revealed that some of the favourite Josephs were rather less fit than others – a few really struggled. Star of that particular show appeared to be Craig – a bit of a surprise there!

Following the public vote, it was revealed that Craig and Chris would be in the sing-off. They both put in an emotional performance of “Long and Winding Road,” and Andrew then decided to save Craig – Chris seemed to have finally lost his nerve altogether. However, he put in an emotionally stirring performance for the closing song, “Close Every Door,” and left with his grace and dignity in tact.

Any Dream will do continues next Saturday on BBC1 at 6.45 pm and you can discuss the show in the Any Dream Will Do forum