The fifth series of Britain's Got Talent began on 16 April 2011 and ended on 4 June 2011. The winner of the show was Jai McDowall, who received £100,000 and a place at the 2011 Royal Variety Performance. The judges were David Hasselhoff, Amanda Holden, Michael McIntyre and Simon Cowell. Cowell only attended the live shows as he was busy launching The X Factor USA. The show was hosted by Ant & Dec on ITV, while Stephen Mulhern presented Britain's Got More Talent on ITV2.

Auditions took place in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff, and Birmingham. Liverpool also hosted auditions for the first time. This was the first year that both Britain's Got Talent and Britain's Got More Talent were shown completely in high definition, as in series 4 only the live shows were shown in HD, while Britain's Got More Talent remained in standard definition throughout.

For the first time since Britain's Got Talent began, there was a permanent change to the judging panel. In October 2010, Piers Morgan announced he was leaving the show due to hosting his new talk show Piers Morgan Tonight in America and he was unable to do both. In December 2010, Simon Cowell confirmed that he would only be present at the live shows as he would also be busy in America launching The X Factor USA. Therefore, comedian Michael McIntyre and former America's Got Talent judge David Hasselhoff were added to the panel with Amanda Holden. There were also guest judges planned for the auditions due to the success of the guest judges on The X Factor, but no guest judges appeared during the auditions. Hasselhoff was unable to attend the London auditions, so The X Factor judge Louis Walsh took his place.

Britain's Got Talent (sometimes shortened to BGT) is a British television talent show competition which started in June 2007 and originated from the Got Talent series. The show is produced by FremantleMedia's Thames (formerly Talkback Thames) and creator Simon Cowell's production company SYCOtv. The show and its sister show Britain's Got More Talent are broadcast on ITV. Anyone of any age with some sort of talent can audition for the show. Acts compete against each other in order to gain the audience support while trying to win the title of "The winner of Britain's Got Talent". Each year, on the morning of the first show of the new series, Britain's Got Talent has a special program titled "Most Talented", featuring interviews of the winners from the previous series and their progress since winning.

Throughout the show, contestants must perform in front of the judges, and each year initial auditions have been held in front of a live audience. Auditions precede live shows, where the final 40 contestants (45 in 2012) perform nightly for a week in order to impress the British public. There have been six winners to date: Paul Potts, George Sampson, Diversity, Spelbound, Jai McDowall and Ashleigh and Pudsey. The winner of each series is given the opportunity to perform at the Royal Variety Performance in front of members of the British Royal Family, including Queen Elizabeth II. The winner also receives a cash prize, which from series 1 to 5 was £100,000, but was increased to £500,000 in series 6. Britain's Got Talent is known as one of Britain's biggest television talent competitions and has also proven popular throughout Europe. The series 3 live final brought in 17.3 million viewers, (a 64.6% audience share). On 18 October 2010, ITV announced that Cowell had signed a new three-year contract renewing Britain's Got Talent until 2013.

Jonathan Antoine and Charlotte Jaconelli, known collectively as Jonathan and Charlotte, are an opera duo. They finished as runners-up in the sixth series of Britain's Got Talent in 2012, being beaten to the winning post on 12 May by dancing dog act Ashleigh and Pudsey. At the time, they were aged 17 and 16 respectively.

They began the contest as "Charlotte and Jonathan," but after Simon Cowell advised Jonathan to "dump" Charlotte, the act's name reversed. Fans expressed disappointment that the duo did not win, but Charlotte responded by saying, "Oh my god we came second out of 70,000 people, it's incredible, it's been amazing."

It was confirmed the day after (13 May 2012), that Simon Cowell was in negotiations to offer the duo a £1 million recording contract. They said they would be pleased to accept the contract, although also want to do some musical theatre in the future. The pair have now been offered a contract, with their first album due out just before Christmas.

Ashleigh and Pudsey are a British dog trick act, comprising trainer Ashleigh Butler, from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, and Pudsey, a six-year old Border Collie, Bichon Frise and Chinese Crested cross. On 12 May 2012, they won the sixth series of the television talent show Britain's Got Talent, becoming the first ever dog trick act to win the competition. Ashleigh and Pudsey beat Jonathan and Charlotte in the final, having received the most votes from the public in a telephone phone-in, winning by 14% of the vote.

On 2 June 2012 Ashleigh and Pudsey performed at Epsom Downs Racecourse in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. In the same month Ashleigh and Pudsey began fronting a PETA campaign calling for a ban on animal cruelty in circuses. They performed on America's Got Talent on 18 July 2012.

Ashleigh and Pudsey are scheduled to perform at the 84th Royal Variety Performance in December 2012 in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II. This year Ashleigh and Pudsey are performing at the New Victoria Theatre Woking in Dick Whittington along side Stephen Mulhern.

Sir Philip Green (born 15 March 1952) is a British businessman. Green began as a businessman at the age of 15. The first and last quoted company Green took lead of was "Amber Day", from which he stepped down as CEO and Chairman in 1992. Since then he has had links to a range of British companies; including a hostile bid for Marks and Spencer and the management of the Arcadia Group, both alongside or supporting his wife. He has been involved in a range of controversies related to both his personal and business life.

Philip Green was born on 15 March 1952 in Croydon, in South London, and has a sister, Elizabeth, five years his senior. His family moved to Hampstead Garden Suburb, a middle-class enclave in north London, and at the age of nine he was sent to the now-closed Jewish boarding school Carmel College in Oxfordshire. When his father died of a heart attack, Philip was in line to inherit the family business at the age of twelve. After leaving boarding school at 15, he worked for a shoe importer before travelling to the US, Europe and the Far East. It was on his return that he set up his first business with a £20,000 loan, importing jeans from the Far East to sell on to retailers in London.