The X Factor - Revealed... [DVD] [Region 1] [NTSC]

Some of these people really are deluded. Great entertainment. I would recommend this until the next series starts. Makes you miss Sharon Osbourne though. Its not the same with the current line up.

Having provided ,for my money the single funniest TV moment of 2005,with the last X Factor it would take some doing for the show to repeat it in 2006 , but if it hadn't been for Dean Gaffney's hilariously manic bush tucker trial in "I ,m A Celebrity" the latest Karaoke megathon would have succeeded again.

The guy with the complexion like he had been jogging behind a gritter wrecking the set as he disembowelled Michael Jackson's "Earth Song" was exactly the sort of moment that makes the early audition rounds of this show such compulsive viewing. What makes it even more comical or poignant depending on your disposition is their genuine shock when the judges inform them they have no future as singers. Such rampant self delusion really is quite awe inspiring to behold .Should we pity them , admire their self belief and ambition or do what I generally do and laugh like a hyena being tickled to death by giant peacocks.

The latest series was won by someone with genuine talent (though of course it will be wasted on hideous covers or ghastly saccharine ballads) but it also highlighted elements of racism in the public voting .How else were Robert and Dionne voted off before the terrifyingly bland McDonald Brothers and the god awful Eton Road whose arrangements with Anthony screeching over the top approximated my imagined soundtrack to Dante's Inferno? So you see, it succeeds as a fallacious social barometer as well as a comedy cabaret.

Other comedy highlights are the young lady with a truly monstrous ego getting dosed with water by Louis Walsh , one of the few occasions I can recall when I ,ve actually agreed with him. In fact acid would have been more appropriate .Then there's the pair of girls dressed as cats murdering "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and one of my favourites the old rockabilly bloke "Rockin Rick", another whose delusion has passed from minor inconvenience into psychosis.

To balance thing up there are the auditions of the genuine contenders and its still nice to see Leona for the first time though it's also still bewildering how Simon Cowell can judge Ashley, who to me sounds like a frog learning to yodel, "Potentially special". Then there is the creepy Ray "The Swing King" whose Machiavellian ambition shines in his eyes like luminescent pond algae.

The extra footage showcases exactly why such footage usually remains unseen adding nothing of interest and overall this DVD isn't on a par with the "Greatest Auditions" DVD released last year which is consistently amusing and quite often very funny indeed. The show itself is increasingly grossly emotionally manipulative, though it doesn't work with me, and the end result remains a Cowell mannequin until they are no longer useful. Let's hope Leona bucks that trend, though the early portents are not good and I suggest they reinforce the set next year because I have a feeling the Michael Jackson bloke will be back.