Eagle-eyed During one child magician’s final performance on Britain’s Got Talent, fans noticed a disguised prosthetic thumb.
However, Ant McPartlin was on there to push it out of the way, saving Cillian O’Connor’s bacon.
The Irish schoolboy impressed the judges with an amazing magic trick that saw Ant vanish.
Declan Donnelly, co-host, said after the performance, ‘I need to know how to do that.’
Cillian began the performance by performing a card trick, later stating that he had ‘predicted’ what Simon Cowell would select from the deck.
He then instructed Simon to write a’magic word’ from the last semi-final on a handkerchief, and he picked ‘dog’.
Cillian summoned Ant to the centre of the stage and extracted the same hankie with Simon’s writings from Ant’s top pocket.
However, as Ant pulled out the hankie, viewers at home spotted something hanging from it… a new plastic thumb!
Ant, ever the expert, simply removed his thumb and stuffed it into his hand.
Cillian then continued his act, receiving thunderous acclaim from the audience and a standing ovation from the judges following his final revelation.
Viewers at home praised Ant for how he managed the mishap, pointing out how he utilised his own sleight of hand to ensure the remainder of the performance went successfully.
‘So lovely of Ant to hide the fake thumb so that it didn’t embarrass him’, one person tweeted.
Another was also able to see the funny side of the mishap, tweeting: ‘Cillians fake finger stuck to the hanky coming out of ants pocket!!! Tv gold’.
Reassuring 14-year-old Cillian, another wrote: ‘Truly gutted for @CilliansMagic when he left his finger on the hanky ant tried his best to cover up. Bless him cillian you are still truly amazing and hope you win sunshine’.
‘Didn’t even see the fake thumb and I don’t care I loved cillian be nice people of twitter’, another urged.
‘Fake thumb, who cares. We all know there’s no such thing as magic so give the kid a break. He did a great job’, one praised.
Judge Simon was full of praise for the County Meath youngster.
‘I just think you’ve obviously got magical powers and I believe in that,’ he told him.
Meanwhile, Bruno Tonioli described him as ‘the embodiment of magic’.
‘You had us in the palm of your hands,’ added Alesha Dixon.
Watch Britain’s Got Talent on ITVX.
