Stephen Mulhern was the presenter of Britain's Got More Talent. He hosted the aforementioned original sister show between Series 1 and Series 13, with the latter of the two being the final series that More Talent aired before being replaced by the new sister show 'Britain's Got Talent: Unseen Bits in Series 14 and the new sister shows reworked format in Series 15.
Despite being part of the BGT backstage team along with Ant & Dec, Mulhern is not entitled to a Golden Buzzer. This was even joked about in Series 13, where he jokingly attempted to give David J Watson a Golden Buzzer. Series 13 also saw Mulhern audition for the show along with Ant & Dec disguised in dog suits and dancing as an act called Disco Dogs. The judges gave them four "yesses" which most probably saw a retraction from each upon the discovery after the "yesses" that this act consisted of Ant & Dec and Mulhern, after they unveiled themselves to end the act.
After 'Britain's Got More Talent' was replaced with 'Britain's Got Talent: Unseen Bits' during Series 14, Stephen no longer worked as a host for BGT in any capacity and never appeared as the new digital companion show was hosted by Ant & Dec alongside the main show. In Series 15 the digital show was replaced with YouTube exclusive outtakes and the judges playing backstage games, thus meaning Stephen did not appear once again. In Series 16 however, there was no sister show of any kind thus marking the first time in the shows history that it ever lacked a sister show.
In early 2022, Stephen guest hosted an episode of the fourteenth season of “Dancing on Ice” due to Phillip Schofield contracting COVID-19. In mid 2023, Schofield was involved in a scandal which saw him sacked from each of his ITV roles including hosting “Dancing on Ice”, as such it was later revealed Stephen would be replacing him as host of the show for the upcoming sixteenth series in 2024 alongside Holly Willoughby after making her return to television following a kidnap threat in October 2023.
In October 2022, both Ant & Dec contracted COVID-19 and could not attend the National Television Awards, therefore Stephen stepped in and accepted their best TV presenter award on their behalf, however this was also the same week that the 2022 Christmas Special 'The Ultimate Magician' was filmed, thus meaning Stephen stepped up once again and hosted said special on Ant & Dec's behalf. In November 2023, Mulhern hosted the ITV reboot of the game show ‘Deal or No Deal’.[1]
In 2021, Stephen was unmasked as mystery character The Masked Winger during the match for Soccer Aid in aid of both UNICEF and Save Generation COVID. In January 2023, Stephen served as a guest panellist on an episode of ITV's 'The Masked Singer UK'. In May 2023, Stephen appeared upon an episode of CBBC's 'Blue Peter'.
Following the airing of Mr Blobby’s audition, many fans speculated it to be Stephen dressed up, however this cannot have been the case as legally only the actors Barry Killerby & Paul Denson are allowed to play the character with Denson having portrayed him from 2016 onwards and Killerby was his original actor.[2]
Catchphrases[]
- "Unbelievable!"
- "Doosh!" (punches the air)
- "Ship out!": Followed by Stephen assuring the viewer/Ofcom that he did say "Ship" with a 'P'.
- "Hot potato!"
- "I'm losing the will."
- "This is actually happening..."
- "No way, Pedro! Not on my watch!"
Running gags[]
Stephen Mulhern plays several running jokes in More Talent, mostly of a self-deprecating nature concerning the state of the spin-off show as well as his own notability as a TV personality.
- Introducing himself as "Stephen Mulhern, star of stage and screen." Stephen is sure to constantly remind all presence of his work on the "main channel" as well as ITV2, including shows such as Catchphrase and Big Star's Little Star.
- Banter with Ant & Dec, who refer to him as "nonsense."
- Numerous elaborate and ridiculous games played by Ant & Dec, the judges, and celebrity guests.
- Interactions with the recurring contestant David J Watson.
- The concept that BGMT is watched solely by "the One Viewer". The One Viewer's identity is unknown, but through his guest appearances, he is shown to be a heavyset dark-skinned man who wears a paper bag over his head, gold chains and shorts, but no shirt.
- The Red Phone, which Mulhern receives humorous calls from constantly. These calls usually come from the One Viewer.
- During the live Semi-Final week, Mulhern banters each night with a celebrity house band as well as a guest personal assistant, the latter of whom fails to improve the state of the show and in fact does more to insult Mulhern, leading him to fire them by the end of the episode.
- The fact that BGMT never seems to win an award. However, this streak ended in 2018, as BGMT had by then won the TV Times Award for Best Digital Show, a fact that Stephen did not fail to mention repeatedly.