I remember seeing him in the first round of auditions - where they mix in the hilariously bad acts with the real talent.
This nervous, sweaty man in a cheap suit shambled onto the stage, looking exactly like you'd expect an underachiever who worked in a mobile phone shop to look.
He then said he was going to sing opera, and I just thought 'how bad is this going to be?'.
Except when he started singing it just blew me away; you could see he was taken to another world when he was singing.
By the time he'd finished, I was crying with emotion. Though I did cry for Connie. And the baton twirler. And the guy looking after his brothers kids. And a few more besides ...
Incidentally, why were Simon and Piers so nice to all the acts? Even the really bad ones didn't get the mauling they'd get on X Factor.
