Mint condition

Last year we thought it was a bit too convenient that Britain's Got Talent, set up as an X Factor for all sorts of entertainment, has as its breakout stars a six year old singer and an amateur opera singer. While Connie Talbot's people are taking their time about things - after all, there'll always be a housewives' market - Paul Potts got to release a full album about two months later. So imagine our surprise this year when the winner turned out to be a teenage breakdancer. Yeah, a breakdancer, to perform at the Royal Variety Performance. What year is it again?

And yet, now look what's happened. The track George Sampson performed to has scorched past all opposition to number one without so much as a marketing plan. We doubt the Singin' In The Rain remix would have been something Mint Royale would look at with fondness regardless, given they did it for advertiser's money in the first place. That nobody directly involved in the show has made extra royalties money out of the sudden windfall is, we suppose, one thing; the complete mockery it makes of what the Official Charts Company would like us to believe is the world's most accurate current singles sales list is quite another.