Britain’s Got Talent slammed for ‘recycling’ old acts as magician returns for second time

BRITAIN'S Got Talent has been slammed for "recycling" old acts after a magician returns for a second time.

ITV1 viewers were left up in arms as Jack Rhodes, 27, made a surprise comeback to the show, having auditioned two years ago as The Phantom.

Jack reached the 2022 semi-final with his invisible ghost act, but has this time auditioned as himself.

After walking out onto the stage in tonight's installments, he said to the judges: "I'm pretty surprised you don't recognise me.

"I might have been on before. You didn't see me. Do you remember the invisible magician, The Phantom? That might have been me."

During his last show stint, Jack narrated each performance with a voiceover disguise - never revealing his identity.

Fans previously racked their brains to try and figure out who the the unseen act is, but ultimately failed.

While the secret is now out, social media users were more bothered by the fact that Jack had been allowed to audition twice.

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, one wrote, "Recycling old acts now are we...," with another joking, "More recycling than your local council."

Someone else said, "They are running out of acts to recycle, bringing back previous acts."

A third agreed, "So another act brought back as 'them'. Boring. Such a shame this show is ruined by the 'wow factor' over genuine auditions and finding acts who are the Saturday night entertainment in a local pub or the kids you see busking in town."

One more raged, "Must'nt have much new talent on if they've got old ones coming back."

Despite the furore, Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden, Bruno Tonioli and Simon Cowell gave Jack four yeses, putting him through to the next round.

Jack's identity was closely-guarded secret when he competed as The Phantom, with him not even performing the full act during rehearsals to avoid witnesses finding out.

At the time, BGT alum Marc Spelmann was forced to deny he was behind the character amid much speculation.

He told The Sun at the time: "I've no idea as to the actual identity of the Phantom at all.

"There was someone who did a joke saying, 'Is Marc Spelmann one of the Teletubbies?' That would have been more my style. Let's go completely left of centre."