Double trouble for Britain’s Got Talent finalist
The four legged winner of Britain’s Got Talent has been outed as a body double after its owner conceded that another dog had been drafted in to perform a daring tightrope act which wowed the audience.
Matisse, the border collie at the centre of the storm, won the show’s top award on Sunday night alongside handler Jules O’Dwyer courtesy of their cops and robbers style routine.
Not all was as it seemed however as, unbeknownst to the audience to the watching audience or judges, a stand-in performing dog was used for some of the more vertiginous stunts.
O’Dwyer let the cat out of the bag whilst being interviewed on ITV’s Lorraine show yesterday when she admitted that Matisse was ‘afraid of heights’ and thus unable to perform a key tightrope walking section.
This admission prompted a social media backlash and forced show producers to apologise saying: “We are sorry if this was not made clearer to the judges and viewers at home during their final performance.”
Matisse, O’Dwyer and Skippy, a three-legged canine assistant, won a £250k cash prize and a chance to perform in the Royal Variety Performance despite their subterfuge.
The broadcaster could now be subject to an Ofcom investigation for misleading viewers.