Graham Norton, presenter of BBC’s Any Dream Will Do, today challenged Simon Cowell to throw in the towel before his show even launches.

Any Dream Will Do and ITV’s Grease Is The Word will both go head to head next week. Both shows are looking for a star of a West End Musical, but Graham believes that they will be two entirely different shows.

Speaking to The Sunday Mirror Graham offered some words of advice to Simon Cowell saying:

“Simon is a huge TV talent – I admire his work ethic,” he said. “But he’s got all the money he needs – he should pack it in and enjoy himself. It must be great sitting on a beach in the Bahamas drinking cocktails with Paula Abdul and raking it in like while doing nothing.”

“Cowell is a TV talent, but Andrew is a phenomenon,” he said. “He wrote his first musical at 18. The man is a genius. Simon is just a good businessman. But I admire his work ethic – to keep going after all these years.”

“On all these copycat talent shows, there’s always someone trying to be Simon Cowell.

“But we’re not like that. Andrew Lloyd Webber is just Andrew. He’s no Mr Nasty. He was around long before all these reality shows. And he’ll still be around afterwards. He’s written songs our children’s children’s children will be singing.”
Norton gloated about his ‘classier’ show and was quick to take a swipe at the ITV judges.

“David is always worth a chuckle – it’s a very unusual look. All Sinitta’s done for the show is to walk down the street in a bikini. I suppose it worked for Borat. For us, this is about finding a star. We’re not looking to humiliate the contestants.”