‘I adore PIERS!'

Woman’s Own columnist Richard Arnold speaks to Amanda Holden, 49, bout the ‘new’ Britain’s Got Talent, her friendship with Piers Morgan, and head judge Simon Cowell’s recovery from a broken back...

- RICHARD ARNOLD

How thrilled are you to be back in the BGT studio?

It feels slightly weird with the new rules in place but we are a family and it’s so amazing to be back together again, while social distancing of course! The refresher and deliberation show highlighted how strong the talent is this year so now it’s very exciting to see how they’ve all spent their time in lockdown perfecting their acts. The biggest difference is obviously having no physical audience in the studio. But we have a virtual live audience of 500 fans at home watching which has kept the show very exciting.

It must feel so different... and yet the same old magic?

Being a metre apart is frustrating because we're an emotive judging pan l d we always kiss or hug high five. Yet we’re so comfortable with each other that there is no pretense with any of us. The laughter and tears are still there. We’re pretty much the same on-screen as we are off. That’s why the panel works so well.

I love the bond between you and Alesha...

From the first day, Alesha joined we’ve got on like a house on fire. People joke that they never hear so much laughter in one place than from the two of us. We kept in contact during the lockdown. Auditions were filmed before lockdown and my youngest Hollie always gets excited when she can get to spend time with Azura [Alesha’s daughter]. When I see them both with Eric [Cowell, Simon’s son] you can’t help but think that all three of them are planning on taking our judges’ seats!

It looked like you had a great summer! Where did you go?