Darcy Oake, Collabro make it to the Britain's Got Talent final (VIDEO)

Operatic boyband Collabro were the people's choice in the first semi-final of Britain's Got Talent and are into the final on June 7.

But the judges' vote on Monday was evenly split between Darcy Oake, the 26-year-old Canadian magician, and Jon Clegg, an English impressionist who earned raucous applause for Ant and Dec mimickry.

Simon Cowell and Alesha Dixon were supporters of Darcy, while David Walliams and Amanda Holden cast their votes Jon's way.

When the decision then returned to public vote, Darcy was announced as the second finalist, the first magician to ever reach that stage.

Earlier, he'd stunned viewers with an elaborate vanishing act, suddenly reappearing on stage as a camera operator.

Watch Darcy tell us what making the final of Britain's Got Talent meant to him:

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.