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Othelio are a singing dance duo who auditioned for Series 4 of Britain's Got Talent. The duo consisted of married couple Craig & Deborah Stevens who performed under the stage names of Zedd & Saffire and had been married for fifteen years at the time of their audition. The pair auditioned for the show as they believed that they were upon their last chance in potentially getting a record deal.
In their audition, the duo sang an original song entitled 'Lift Me', whilst seemingly performing a robotic dance routine alongside it. Midway through their performance they began to rap, before returning to the pace that the rest of the piece had. Simon buzzed their performance. Simon commented and criticised that it were bad when they began their performance, however it got worse when Saffire began singing. Piers however added that he believed in providing the pair with 'A second chance'.
They advanced onto the following round, and were originally slated for the Semi-Finals, however were later disqualified from the competition on Wednesday 26th May 2010.[1]
After BGT[]
In 2012, the duo competed on 'Don't Stop Me Now'.
In 2013, the duo competed on 'Got To Dance' & appeared in the Jenny Craig Diet National Video Campaign & on 'The Odd Couple' & 'The Sporah Show'.
In 2014, the duo appeared on C4's 'Coach Trip' & 'Twin Towns'.
In 2015, the duo appeared on 'River City', 'One Of Us', 'The Syndicate', 'Outsider', & 'Tommy's Honour'.
Additionally in 2015, Deborah partook in a 'Scottish Government Bowel Cancer UK TV Commercial'.
In 2015 & 2016, the duo appeared on ITV's 'Judge Rinder', with the second appearance being a case of copyright infringement against Captain Beany where they were the claimants and he was the defendant.[2]
In between 2015 & 2016 the duo appeared in BBC's 'The Secret Agent'.
In 2016, the duo appeared on 'Special Guests Live At Five'.
Between 2015 & 2016, the duo had a recording contract with Sony Pictures which was renewed in 2017.
Between 2016 & 2017, the duo appeared on ITV's 'The Chopping Block', which was later rebranded as 'Chopping Block'.
In 2017, following the Moffatt Family's exit from C4's Gogglebox Craig & Deborah, who are now known as Z & Saffire claimed that they were on the radar of the Gogglebox producers and that they were being considered for the show, yet a Gogglebox Spokesperson stated that there was 'No truth' surrounding these rumours.[3]
In 2018, the duo were judges on both ‘Teen Stars’ & ‘Britain Does Variety’ and got a recording contract with Sony Music.
In 2019, the duo appeared upon Test Drive, Al Murrays Great British Pub Quiz, an episode of Dave's 'Judge Romesh', & the Virgin Media Christmas Advert.[4]
Controversy[]
Following the duo's audition the media discovered that Deborah's ex-husband Michael Maddison had murdered two men named Allan Cunning & Darren Hall who he claimed had been sexually harassing Deborah with a baseball bat, whilst she did not report the incident to the police and did not inform Got Talent producers of her past despite witnessing the murder from the pairs flat in Fife in 1992. Maddison was later sentenced to life in prison in 1993, however, was later released in 2004.[5] Due to Deborah's history the families of the victims complained about her presence on the show as despite the fact that she was not involved in the murder and was but an innocent bystander, she did not contact the police surrounding the incident.[6]
A show source stated that 'Bosses felt there was too much focus on their past than their actual act. This scrutiny wouldn't be beneficial to them. The fact they didn't tell us about their past didn't help. We could have planned how to deal with it but instead it came out of the blue', with a BGT Spokeswoman confirming that the duo had been axed from the show due to the fact that the producers had a duty of care towards all acts and felt it best that the duo did not continue on in the competition.[7]
- ↑ Stevie Star (II) - News - IMDB
- ↑ Facebook - Watch Z & Saffire Vs Captain Beany On ITV
- ↑ Metro - Britain’s Got Talent duo Z & Saffire deny they’re joining Gogglebox – or are they?
- ↑ JCM Management - Craig And Deb Stephens AKA Z & Sapphire
- ↑ Daily Record - Unmasked: We reveal the TRUE identity of the pop act trying to hoodwink X Factor judges
- ↑ BBC News - Two acts leave Britain's Got Talent
- ↑ Digital Spy - 'BGT' duo axed over double murder link