HUNDREDS of people  turned out in Southampton's WestQuay Shopping Centre in a bid to become TV stars on one of the country's biggest shows.

Ant & Dec's Supercomputer, part of the Geordie duo's hit ITV show Saturday Night Takeaway, is at the shopping centre today looking for hidden talents and party tricks.

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People of all ages gathered round the supercomputer watching fans show off their skills in an attempt to win a trip to New York City.

The show, which goes out on Saturday nights and began its new series last weekend, features pranks on celebrities, an Ant versus Dec contest, live music and one audience member bidding to win the prizes featured in the adverts.

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Rich Kelly

Rich Kelly, 31, unemployed, from Lordshill, said: "I'm really excited about performing. I'm going to sing the Saints theme tune Oh When The Saints and wave and march. I watch the show every Saturday. I will be excited if I'm on TV next week."

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Stacey Olsen, 23, a recruitment assistant from Totton performed with friend Nicole Bicknell, 23, a nursery assistant from Holbury.

Stacey said: "We're going to do a dance together and maybe a bit of singing too. We wanted to do it because it's a good laugh and the crowd seems quite good today.

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"Everyone would expect us to be on tv because they know what we're like."

Hampshire's singers and dancers pulled out all the stops to get noticed by TVs latest talent contest.

Before the shops even opened dozens of people poured into WestQuay as Ant and Dec's Supercomputer from ITV's Saturday Night Takeaway came to the city in the search for the county's most talented.

Donning bright red wigs, fairy wings and lobster costumes, contestants buzzed with excitement as they waited to perform in front of hundreds of shoppers in the hope to make it on TV.

The top performers will appear on next week's show and the best could win a trip to the big apple.

The Supercomputer will be on the ground floor of the shopping centre until 6pm today.

Participants must be over 18.

Oliver Schofield, 12, and Lily Schofield, 14, from Hamble and Charlotte Elsom, 11, from Woolston, below, turned out for the fun.

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Stacey Burt, 38, hairdresser and mum-of-two from Bitterne and Ashli Burt, 18, a City College student from Bursledon dressed up for their act The Weather Girls.

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Stacey said: "I sent a link to Ashli intending for her to do it with friends and she said 'lets do it' so we did.

"You only live once. It told us to do the crab and I haven't done that since I was about 10 - I think I'm going to need physiotherapy for the rest of my life. It was great fun."

Ashli said: "It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was really fun."

The Supercomputer cousins

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Donna Davis (in pink) came to WestQuay  with her mum Margaret, 70, and children Zara, 12, and Luke, 10.

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Donna, 48, a teaching assistant from Andover said: "We came down from Andover after it said on tv it was going to be here.

"My daughter is mad on Ant and Dec. It's absolutely brilliant. I wish we had it in Andover."

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Penny Raymond, 45, a mum-of-three and volunteer at the Highlands Hub, Fareham, from Fareham, said: "I'm taking part just for a laugh and because I like Ant and Dec.

"I told my mum that if I win she can go on the holiday to New York with my dad.

"I'm going to act really silly, I have a song that I made up and I'm going to fo the splits, show off my toy monkey and do a magic trick."

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Rickki Cooper, 44, a scaffolder from Hythe and Simon Reggo, 39, unemployed from Bournemouth took part to promote their fundraising group The South Coast Apes, who dress up at conventions and raise money for charities including CLIC Sargent and the Piam Brown children's ward at Southampton General Hospital.

Ricky said: "We took part because we wanted to promote our group so we can go to more events and help raise more money for charity. Also it was something we've never done before."

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Ashley Hall, 20, a labourer, travelled from Bognor Regis to take part. He said: "I enjoyed doing it. It was brilliant. I just wanted to do it for fun and a little bit of me wanted to be on tv.


"If I win I'm going to give the holiday to my mum and dad because my dad's been in hospital so they deserve a break."

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Sarah Cole, 28, a personal assistant came from Portsmouth to take part. She said: " I just love Ant and Dec and I've watched the Saturday Night Takeaway for years and it's not really come to the south much before. As I'm fairly local I decided to come and have a go.

"It was fun but tiring. My nephew really likes David Walliams's Gangster Granny and I had the outfit so I thought I would be a grooving granny."

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Elodie, nearly seven, Amelie, nine and dad Hugh Lucas, 43, a shop assistant from Chandlers Ford. Elodie brought her class mascot Luke the snake from Python Class at Fryern Infant School in Chandlers Ford.

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Amy Duffy, 21, and Rebecca Bental, 20, both University of Southampton students from Portswood with their camels Stephen and Horse.

Amy said: "We came to take part because we thought it would be something to do. For our act, we're going to ride camels."


Rebecca said: "It looked really good on the telly last time so we wanted to do it. We thought we would regret it if we didn't."

Rob Franks (penguin), 19, assistant director at the Nuffield Youth Theatre from Woolston and Dan Tarrant (goat), a Specsavers lab assistant and YouTuber (#justdanthings youtube.com/justdanthings).

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Rob said: "Every time we see it on tv you expect it to be coming near you eventually, so when I heard it was coming to Southampton I knew I definitely wanted to do it. We only started preparing this morning."


Dan said: "We were waiting for a long time for it to come to our area. It was nerve wracking, hilarious and thrilling. We would definitely do it again."

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Steve Hull, 47, a PCSO from Sandown, IOW, aka Stevo the Magician and son, trainee magician Kai.

Steve said: "My son asked if we could do it and I said yes. I thought it was something he could do but when we got here we realised it was for over 18s.

"I felt a bit hit and miss about it. There are some really good acts that aren't getting where they should. It's a really random system. It's nice to see how it works behind the scenes though."