BBC defends Let It Shine after it emerges winning band won't have a single line of dialogue in Take That musical
Five To Five will only sing and dance in the touring stage show but the BBC maintains they'll still be "front and centre"
The BBC has defended Gary Barlow's search for a stage show boyband, Let It Shine, after it was revealed that winning quintet Five to Five won't have a single line of dialogue in the upcoming Take That musical.
Viewers expressed outrage when they learned that The Band was not in fact the story of the band, but rather that of five teenage girls – all of whom have been cast off screen.
AJ Bentley, Curtis T Johns, Nick Carsberg, Sario Solomon, Yazdan Qafouri nabbed the top prize on the BBC talent show, but won't have any spoken lines in the production, The Stage reports. They will act as the titular Band, singing Take That numbers and and dancing in the production, but the story will in fact focus on the group of their young fans.
The BBC has defended the show after some viewers took to Twitter to say they had been left "feeling conned" by the starry BBC1 talent show, assuming that the winning boyband would take the starring roles.
"We always said we were casting for a band to appear in a musical based on the music of Take That and that they had to be able to sing and dance – i.e. like a boyband. And that the winners would sing and dance to 14 Take That numbers in Gary's musical. We never said we were casting actors", a spokesperson for the broadcaster told RadioTimes.com.
However, the spokesperson also stressed that the band will be "front and centre of the musical", despite having no lines of dialogue.
A spokesperson for the musical has also countered earlier reports that the Let It Shine winners will just be “backing singers".
"We can assure fans of Let It Shine that AJ Bentley, Curtis T Johns, Nick Carsberg, Sario Solomon, Yazdan Qafouri will be front and centre for The Band musical singing 14 of Take That's songs. There are lots of exciting elements to the plot of the show and when we are finally able to unveil these, everything will make sense", they said.
The Band will tour the UK from September 2017. Here's everything you need to know about the Take That musical.
