By Andy Simon @AndySimon55

Gary Barlow apparently, is searching for five sad people, with very empty and pointless lives, er, I mean contestants, to star in a stage musical, show, thingy about a boy band.

Although why he would want to conduct his search in front of a public, that's just got over the disaster that was The X Factor, and with the help of the BBC, remains a mystery.

His fellow judges in this rather questionable quest, Martin Kemp, Dannii Minogue and Amber Riley (whoever she is) clearly didn't have anything better to do, and decided to tag along.

Either that; or the pay check & TV exposure, was too good to resist.

When you think about it, what Gary is doing is nothing new. Andrew Lloyd Webber did pretty much the same thing, when he searched for a new Joseph to wear his technicolor dreamcoat.

It gets worse.

The opening number, performed by Gary himself, and his co-hosts, was surely enough to cheese X Factor judge Simon Cowell off. But Cowell's show is dead anyway, so who cares what he thinks?

Except perhaps Mr Barlow's lawyers?
Anyway; on with the show.

First up; Clinton Elvis (did someone really give him that name?) was predictably, unimpressive, however his footwork was better than his out of breath singing. I think Gary can safely knock him out.

Next was Deaglan Arthurs, an obese Jedward lookalike who sings in his shower, and by the sound of his version of Sinatra's classic New York New York, he'll still be singing in his shower for years to come. He even scored a surprising 18 points, which gave me my first true hint, of how the standard and quality of this show, was quickly declining.

In fact; the standard was already dropping quicker than my attention span, and I was beginning to wriggle with discomfort, by this point.

Next up was Jamie-Ryan Taylor, a trainee firefighter, who I thought sang rather well, considering he forgot his words. But he's never been on stage before, never held a mic, and it showed.

The judges were not kind. Never mind.
He'll probably make a better fireman, than a singer.

The rest of the wannabes came and went rather unimpressively, as the show progressed, and I got to thinking, yeah; this show has bits of Britain's Got Talent, X Factor, and a large bit of Joseph's dreamcoat, thrown in?

We have seen it all before.

Gary's co-hosts, Graham Norton and Mel Giedroyc provided (allegedly) some light relief between the auditions. Probably to give us time to check our ear defenders before the next one.

Like I said; I have seen this before through Lloyd-Webbers Joseph. It's only episode one and at the moment, I cannot say whether I like it or not. Well, I think I can, actually. I don't really like it.

At the end if the day, it's just another talent show, dressed up as something else. And had it not been for Gary Barlow being a nice guy (well; he is in front of the cameras) I probably wouldn't watch this show again, not even out of some morbid curiosity.

Let It Shine, is for me at least, shining as bright as a forty watt bulb, in a thick fog. But hey . . . I'll give any talent show a chance to brighten up my Winter Saturday Night's whatever new clothes the BBC has dressed it up in.

And as long as Let It Shine does not end up like X Factor, Britain's Got Talent, New Faces, Opportunity Knocks, and all the other so called Talent Shows, that promised great talent, and yet sadly delivered, very little, or none at all, then perhaps Gary Barlow's quest for his new Boy Band, for his new musical, might well be remembered, for all the right reasons. Probably.

We shall see. The Jury is out on this one.

Thanks for reading.

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