A Skipton man has made it through to the live semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent – and he has a surprising reason for wanting to win the hit ITV1 talent show.

42-year-old Martyn Crofts – a mortgage underwriter with the Skipton Building Society - said on tonight’s show: “Hopefully, by winning Britain’s got Talent, I’ve got a real good chance of opening Skipton Gala.

“Me and my son, we always go to Skipton Gala and it’s always opened by a celebrity. I said to him, ‘next year, I’m going to open the actual gala’.

As host Declan Donnelly said: “If you’ve got a dream, you may as well dream big.”

Dad of three Martyn told Ant and Dec he had been honing his unusual act for 20 years in pubs and clubs.

Asked by Simon Cowell if he could win the show he said: “I reckon I could, actually, yes. This act is absolutely unique.”

The act involved Martyn putting a saucepan on his head and singing his version of King of the Road.

The audience loved it, and so did the majority of the judges.

Amanda Holden said: “Do you know what? I loved that. I did. It’s variety and that’s what Britain’s Got Talent is all about.”

David Walliams joked: “For me the star of the show was the saucepan – it’s obviously a good one, it’s non-stick.

But he added: “It was very original. At no point did I think you were going to put that on your head and be a Dalek.

Alesha Dixon said: “I actually did enjoy it, that’s what’s confusing me. I’m not supposed to like you but I really did.”

However, head judge Simon Cowell was not so impressed.

“Look, I’ve got to be honest with you,” he told Martyn. “I came back from Aemrica to do this show because I’m looking for somebody who I could possibly put on in Las Vegas and with the greatest respect if you turned up with a saucepan on your head pretending to be a Dalek, you would empty stadiums.”

As he left the stage, Alesha Dixon was heard to say: “Wow, people just continue to surprise you, when you think you’ve seen it all, you really haven’t.”

Martyn's act immediately trended on Twitter, with Exterminate, Dalek and Skipton Gala making up three of the UK’s top ten trends.

After his audition was screened, Martyn was shown with three other acts being selected for the live stages of the competition, when he will go up against 44 other conestants and face a public phone vote.

Alesha Dixon said it had been a unanimous decision.