EG INTERVIEW: PAUL POTTS

Click here for a complete article form thisisnottingham.co.uk

The winner of last year's Britain's Got Talent, BBC's answer to The X Factor, spent most of his life feeling "insignificant" and used singing to escape into his own world ever since being bullied at school, where he was called "saddo" and "flea-bag".

"My mother recalls me listening to the theme from ET and conducting an imaginary orchestra with sticks," laughs Paul Potts, who was born outside Bristol 37 years ago, one of four children, to a bus driver father and supermarket cashier mum.

By the time he reached 11, he was part of one of the best church choirs in Bristol. But it was when he hit 16 that his love of opera took hold.