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Richard Jones is a magician who won Series 10 of Britain's Got Talent. He also worked in the army at the time of his audition. Before his performance on The Ultimate Magician, he stated he had signed up for Series 8 of the show, before a picture was shown on screen of him next to a large 'Britain's Got Talent' billboard as proof, yet he bottled it and never did audition that year.
Jones' audition was televised after a montage of unsuccessful 'bad magicians'. In his audition, he began by placing a 'gift' on the table, before producing two notebooks. He revealed that the first notebook contained the names of a number of celebrities, whilst the second contained a list of drinks. He asked judges Amanda and David to choose an item from the first and second notebooks respectively, before telling them to throw their notebooks onto the stage. He then created the celebrity Amanda was thinking of (David Beckham) using origami, and claimed he did this due to a 'transmission' of thoughts where Amanda touched Richard's head and received an electric shock. David then revealed that he was thinking of 'tea' from the drinks list, and Richard revealed that the 'gift' on the table contained not tea, but orange soda. After another 'transmission', he put his hands over the can, allowing it to heat up. He then poured the contents of the can into the cup, and revealed that it was indeed a cup of tea. Alesha commented 'I really want to see more of what you can do', whilst Amanda added that he had 'every chance' of winning.
In the Semi-Finals, Richard produced another 'gift', as well as revealing that he had a copy of Amanda's autobiography. He asked Alesha to choose a page from the book, as well as remembering the first word on the page. Before continuing with the trick, he took the receipt from the book and transformed it into two bank notes. He then revealed that the exact page from the book that Alesha was thinking of was in a bottle (the 'gift' on the table) before revealing that the first word ('bottom') was burnt into the page. David commented 'I have no idea how you did that' and joked that 'people will be running to Poundland tomorrow to buy Amanda's book', whilst Alesha described his performance as having been 'fantastic'. He won the Public Vote and advanced immediately onto the Final.
In the Final, he performed a number of classic card tricks whilst narrating the story of Fergus Anckorn, a man who was captured and taken prisoner in Japan, but performed magic to keep his morale up. He performed Fergus' most popular trick, which was to have a card signed, tear it and burn it, before restoring it to its original state. He then placed several cards in a suitcase in order to create an image of Fergus when he served in the army, before introducing Fergus onto the stage. Simon remarked 'It was so appropriate after ten years of [BGT] that you chose this night to do what you did [and] it was amazing', with David adding 'It was just so emotional as we were hearing that story we all had tears in our eyes, I've never felt that at all with a magician [and] I think your really one to watch tonight'. He won the series, gaining 16.7% of the audience votes.
After BGT[]
He later appeared as a contestant on The Chase in 2015. In 2017 he went on his Power of Imagination tour, before later going on another tour in 2018 yet this time at Butlins over Half Terms, and Summer Holidays. Additionally he returned to BGT in 2017 as a guest performer for the shows fourth Semi-Final.
He later returned to represent Britain's Got Talent on The Champions (Series 1). He noted that he remained in the army and travelled the world with them as a magician. He had kept in contact with Fergus Anckorn yet Fergus had passed away at 99 in 2018 and so therefore had not reached 100. Before his death Fergus shared some of his best magic tricks with an honoured Richard. Fergus taught Richard many things such as to keep his best memories.
In his Champions performance Jones showed Simon a phone and scrolled down through images. He noted several countries on strings that he had visited to David. Simon chose an undisclosed image prior to this, as David pulled out Toronto, Canada from the sticker of the string. Richard then set it alight with a lit lighter. He showed Alesha his lucky pocket watch, as he asked her to spin the dial until he said otherwise. He then asked Amanda where he was tagged in the photograph that Simon chose, the place was Toronto, Canada. Hidden in the background of the photograph was a clock that said two o'clock, as Alesha set the pocket watch to 1:50. It was later revealed that Fergus had written 'A good soldier is always ten minutes early' on the back of the pocket watch. Amanda believed that Richards magic embodied both his military career and his time as a magician, stating 'Fergus would be proud of [him]', with David adding that Richard was a 'class act'. He placed second in the super fan vote, one above DJ Arch Jnr., yet one below Darcy Oake.
In November 2019, Jones competed upon the Italian competition series Tu Si Que Vales and was later placed in a mini Semi-Final scenario and had to perform against Messoudi Brothers a month later in December. Following this mini Semi-Final, Jones was eliminated from the competition as each of the judges voted for his opposition Messoudi Brothers.[1]
In Winter 2020 Jones returned for the Britain's Got Talent Christmas Spectacular. Jones based his performance upon the work that key workers carried out during 2020, starting with several cards. Jones then turned 3 of them over and revealed these to be Police Officers, NHS Staff, and Firefighters. He then turned three more cards over and showed the 3 armed forces with these being the Army, the Navy, and the RAF. Jones concluded his performance by creating the British Flag and the words 'Thank You', beneath this flag by using the remainder of the cards.
Jones was one of ten magicians who performed on The Ultimate Magician. To begin his performance he recited his story as to how he accidentally got into magic one night alongside his friend Dean and a pack of cards, before showing he still had the card that Dean had chosen to this day. He then scattered several unprinted cards and a printed card before asking Amanda to pick one (she picked the printed 4 of Hearts) and sign it, before taking her ring and asking her to think of someone who changed her life for the better, before using her ring to burn every card but the one she had chosen. He then asked her to name the person who changed her life (Pippa Nightingale), before revealing this to be written on the back of the card and Pippa to be on stage in a glass box which slowly became more see through. Penn remarked ‘You're always trying to make magic… have a story that touches our hearts and you certainly did that absolutely beautifully’, with David adding ‘it was the perfect mixture of one being an incredible trick and one being incredibly emotional’.