When Let It Shine hit our screens back in January, audiences were under the impression that the five boys chosen as the eventual winners would go on to be the lead actors of Gary Barlow’s Take That musical ‘The Band’.
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But it has now been revealed that winners Five To Five will not actually play the lead roles in the upcoming show.
What a swizz, eh?
Instead the five lucky fellas – AJ Bentley, Sario Solomon, Curtis T Johns, Nick Carsberg and Yazdan Qafouri – will be singing back up in the chorus.
It’s understood that they are unlikely to have even a spoken role in the whole show.
Apparently the musical will focus on the lives of five crazed female boyband fans who adore a certain group.
Now the BBC has come under fire for not making the winners’ roles clear from the outset
Critics and fans have called out the BBC for “bad form”.
“Such a farce!” one angry viewer tweeted. “Thought they were going to be the musical, not the backing singers to a show! Wonder if the band even knew.”
Another commented: “So the #LetItShine winners aren’t actually going to be the stars of the new Gary Barlow musical? Slightly misleading methinks.”
Of course, it’s been pointed out by the BBC that neither Barlow nor the BBC ever actually said that the winners would have a starring role in the production, carefully mentioning that they would “join the cast” of the show and “perform the hits of the band”.
Ah very clever!
When the show was first announced by the Beeb, they said: “Let It Shine will be seeking out talent to create a band who will join the cast of a brand new stage show featuring the music of Take That.
“Over eight weeks of competition, BBC One and Gary Barlow will be looking for talented individuals to form a new group that exudes the charisma, showmanship and stage presence that the hit group has become so famous for.
“The winning group will perform the hits of the band in a nationwide musical stage show called The Band.”
But this has not appeased fans one little bit and they have been bleeting on Twitter about it with many saying they feel cheated.
The BBC have said: “With Let it Shine we always said we were casting for a band to appear in a musical based on the music of Take That and they had to be able to sing and dance – like a boyband.
“The winners will sing and dance to 14 Take That numbers in Gary’s musical. We never said we were casting actors. But they will be front and centre of the musical.”
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If you want to see the boys you voted for stage left at the back behind the real stars of the show, you can catch them when the show goes on tour, kicking off in Manchester on September 8.