Annual Dinner 2009 Entertainment 

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Piers Morgan

Piers Morgan was born in 1965. He studied journalism at Harlow College, beginning his career in local south London newspapers before being spotted by Kelvin McKenzie of The Sun and given his own showbiz column, Bizarre. Aged only 28 Rupert Murdoch made him Editor of News of The World in January 1994; he was headhunted two years later to edit The Mirror where he stayed until May 2004 when he was sacked following the decision to publish photos of British soldiers apparently abusing Iraqi prisoners of war.

Since then, Piers has presented a number of TV shows – including The Dark Side of Fame, You Can’t Fire Me, I’m Famous and Tabloid Tales for BBC1. He shot to fame in the US as Simon Cowell’s loathsome Brit mate as a Judge on the top rated show America’s Got Talent and wowed American audiences to triumphantly win The Celebrity Apprentice. Piers is also a Judge on the hit UK show, Britain’s Got Talent. 2009 sees Piers with new series for ITV1 – Piers On… documentary travelogue programmes where he has VIP access-all-areas pass to some of the most glamorous locations in the world and new chat show, Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, an intimate and revealing interview, celebrating the life and career of leading stars from entertainment, business and politics.

His book, The Insider, private diaries of a scandalous decade, became an instant number one bestseller and sequel Don’t You Know Who I Am? Insider diaries of fame, power and naked ambition topped the bestselling list. In addition, Piers writes a regular column for The Mail on Sunday on sports and his diaries appear in their supplement Live Magazine. For GQ magazine, Piers takes on celebrities in his regular monthly feature where he interviews some of the biggest names in entertainment, sports and politics.

Diversity

In May 2009, Diversity took the UK by storm by winning Britain’s Got Talent. Nearly 20 million people in the UK, and much of the world were glued to their television screens to see Diversity overcome the odds and sweep to victory, in what was the most watched TV programme in these shores for over six years.

Formed in 2007, in memory of a dear friend, the dance troupe consists of eleven members from East London and the Essex area. Ranging in age from 13-26, Diversity are really one big family. They are made up of three sets of brothers: Ashley and Jordan Banjo, Ian, Jamie and Matthew McNaughton, Sam and Mitchell Craske. They are complemented by four of their best friends: Terry Smith, Ike Ezekwugo, Warren Russell and Perri Luc Kiely.

Ashley, the group’s leader and choreographer has been dancing since he was just 5 years old. Incorporating several genres of music from classical to hip-hop, their diverse eye-catching routines won the hearts of the nation and forced Simon Cowell to describe them as “sheer and utter perfection”. They have also attracted several other celebrity admirers including Prince Charles and Desmond Tutu.

Since winning the show, they have travelled the length of the country dancing for their legion of devoted fans. Highlights so far include performances at Wembley Stadium, T4 on The Beach, the Mobo Awards, and the Pride of Britain Awards. They are also the only act ever to perform on Downing Street for the Prime Minister, outside No.10. They will also be entertaining Her Majesty The Queen at the Royal Variety Performance in December.

Spurred on by the group’s motto ‘Dream, Believe, Achieve’, they are a remarkable example of what can be accomplished with hard work, dedication and belief.

Stavros Flatley

When father and son act Stavros Flatley ran on stage at the Hammersmith Apollo for the Britain's Got Talent auditions, nobody could predict what was to come. They became an overnight sensation, and were many people's favourite to win the show.

It all started when Demetri owned a Greek restaurant in North London. The food was notoriously bad, but the cabaret performances were legendary! It was at the restaurant that Demetri developed the Stavros Flatley character.

He eventually closed the restaurant to start a successful career in the electrical business, but when he saw an advert for Britain's Got Talent auditions, he decided to dust off the leather trousers and give it a go. This time however, his son Lagi told him he wanted to join him. They had never performed together before, but decided to give it a go.

At the auditions they wowed the judges, Simon Cowell admitting they were one of his 'favourite ever dance acts'. Turning in hilarious, infectious performances of Cry of The Celts, Lord of The Dance, and Zorba The Greek, they went on reach the final, with Amanda Holden admitting they were her personal favourites.

Julian Smith

Julian Smith graduated from Birmingham Conservatoire in 1991 with distinction in performance and teaching on his first study which was at that time Bassoon.

Julian’s musical style could be described as “Easy listening/Crossover Classical” as another big influence for his musical style is the vocal group “Il Divo”.
Combining performance on saxophone and teaching on clarinet and saxophone, Julian could now make a living as a musician/teacher. After producing a couple of self financed albums with producer and arranger Ty Unwin a track called Silver was placed on the multiplatinum compilation album called Classic Chillout by Sony in 2001, and subsequently more tracks were commissioned from Julian and Ty over the next two years.

Frustrated without any further real success in the music industry after a period of six years, Julian decided to enter BRITAINS GOT TALENT IN 2009 and achieved second runner up placement with nearly 700,000 public telephone votes and millions of YouTube hits on the internet.

A very special moment on the show for Julian was when the producers arranged for him to play with his idol Kenny G at the Royal Albert Hall, where Kenny G actually presented Julian with his own signature model saxophone as a good luck gift.

Since then Julian has performed for Prince Charles at Clarence House and many other prestigious events including ARK and THE RED CROSS.

Jason Manford

Jason Manford has won various awards for his stand-up comedy and is a regular on Channel Four's 8 Out of 10 Cats.

At the end of July 2008, Channel 4 launched the comedy current affairs show, Tonightly, co-presented by Jason Manford.

In 2009, Jason Manford became a team captain on the BBC's As Seen On TV.