Magic Of StoryTelling

With a new series of Britain's Got Talent having just hit the nation's TV screens, last year's winner, magician Richard Jones, is heading to Guildford to show off the power of our imaginations.

- Matthew Williams

NEARLY 10 million people watched him become the first magician to win Britain’s Got Talent last year but things will be rather more intimate for Richard Jones when he performs at the 300 capacity Boileroom in Guildford this month.

“We had a lot of fun putting together such a spectacle for BGT but, to be honest, I much prefer having these sorts of audiences as it’s a lot easier to engage with them,” the 26-year old military man tells Surrey Life over the phone from a lay-by in between army bases, as he prepares for his The Power of Imagination tour. “Things can be much more interactive and, if I want, I can just step off stage or pull people on for certain tricks etc. Obviously the TV stuff has to be perfectly choreographed and there’s a big time constraint, which makes it tricky for magicians to build the right atmosphere. We won’t be able to fit the band on stage on this tour, obviously, but my magic is more about story telling than flash effects anyway. It’s all new material with plenty of surprises along the way.”

A powerful tale

Still a serving soldier, the charming lance corporal won the 10th series of Britain’s Got Talent with an epic set-piece telling the story of Fergus Anckorn, a war veteran and Britain’s oldest magician. The performance culminated with the 96-year-old joining Richard on stage, while the massed ranks of the Band of the Household Cavalry played. There were tears.