Britain's Got Talent's dancing gran hits back in 'fakery' row as she dedicates her jaw-dropping routine to her late husband



Paddy Jones, 79, and her partner Nico Espinosa are through to semi-finals

She said the fact they won the Spanish contest should make no difference

Dedicated performance to late husband David who died of cancer in 2003







The great-grandmother who was last night catapulted into the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent has hit back at critics who suggested she had no right to be on the ITV show.

Paddy Jones, 79 – whose jaw-dropping routine with her young partner Nico Espinosa, wowed the show’s judges and studio audience – said the fact they had previously won the Spanish TV contest Tu Si Que Vales (You Are Worth It) in 2009 should not count against them.

Mrs Jones said: ‘Surely other people do this as well and go in for all sorts of competitions.

‘Nico and I haven’t gone on to BGT with thoughts of gaining goodness knows what, we have gone into it for the pleasure of being able to dance and letting people see what we can do.’

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Paddy Jones, 79, who was last night catapulted into the semi-finals of Britain's Got Talent with her younger partner Nico Espinosa, has hit back at critics who suggested she had no right to be on the ITV show

Mrs Jones' jaw-dropping routine with partner Nico, wowed the show's judges and the studio audience. She said the fact they won the Spanish TV contest Tu Si Que Vales (You Are Worth It) in 2009 should not count against them

The retired dental nurse, who lives near Valencia in Spain but is originally from Stourbridge, West Midlands, insists she has never met any of the show's judges prior to the audition

Tu Si Que Vales is not part of the ‘Got Talent’ franchise and is not owned by Cowell’s production company Syco.

The retired dental nurse, who lives near Valencia in Spain but is originally from Stourbridge, West Midlands, insists she has never met any of the show’s judges prior to the audition and was ‘flabbergasted’ when Amanda Holden pressed the golden buzzer which guaranteed her a place in the semi-finals.

The show’s ten million fans saw Amanda and fellow judges Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams initially give a frosty reception to the dancers, who Cowell described as a ‘bit weird’.

The opening seconds of the routine seemed to confirm the worst fears of the panel and Cowell registered his disappointment by pressing his red buzzer.

But moments later the couple embarked on a series of show- stopping lifts and spins which drew screams of delight from the judges and audience and ended with a standing ovation and an apology from Cowell.

Mrs Jones, 80 in July, started dancing when she was two. The mother of four, grandmother of seven and great-grandmother of one said: ‘Because I am whizzed round so much I can’t see the reactions of people until we have finished the routine.’

Mrs Jones, who dedicated her perfornance to her late husband, said she was flabbergasted that judge Amanda Holden pressed the golden buzzer, which guaranteed her and her partner a place in the semi-finals

She said: 'I am flabbergasted to have got this far. I am ploughing ahead with it and enjoying it as much as I can. I would encourage older people to get up from watching TV all day to do something. It is a question of mind over matter'

She said she was delighted Cowell had felt the need to apologise for his snub.

Mrs Jones gave up on her dreams of becoming a professional dancer when she married her late husband David when she was 22 in 1956.

He died from leukaemia in 2003 shortly after the couple had started a new life in Spain and she began dancing again at the age of 69 as a means of filling her ‘lonely nights’.

Mrs Jones' husband David died from leukaemia in 2003 shortly after the couple had started their new lives in Spain

She walked into Nico’s studio on the off-chance he could teach her Flamenco.



The pair hit it off and within months they were performing at clubs and dance competitions across Spain.

Mrs Jones, whose real first name is Sarah, said: ‘I spoke to the children and asked them what they thought.



'They said I’d given up everything for Dad and them so do what you want because Dad would have approved. I think he would.’

She said she had no idea how she would top last night’s routine.

‘I am flabbergasted to have got this far,’ she said. ‘I am not expecting the impossible. I am ploughing ahead with it and enjoying it as much as I can.

‘I would encourage older people to get up from watching TV all day to do something. It is a question of mind over matter.’

Mrs Jones, who performed in professional panto when she was younger, insists she does not have a stringent fitness routine although she has never smoked.

She said: ‘I live on the side of a mountain so I have to go up and down steps all day, which is pretty good. I go to my dance classes and workout as long as I can, and if I get tired I stop.’

Mrs Jones said she found it hard not to think of her husband as she walked out on stage for last night’s audition.



She said: ‘The chappie who went on before us sang so beautifully and it was a song very dear to my heart – a favourite of my husband’s and mine which was a bit upsetting just before going on stage.’