Britain's Got Talent magic man Richard Jones reveals what viewers can expect from his exciting new ITV show, Operation Magic
Britain's Got Talent winner Richard Jones says he’s fulfilling his childhood dreams as he gears up to front a special one-off magic show for ITV.
Operation Magic gives military magician Richard – who still plays in The Band of The Household Cavalry – the chance to give something back to his Army comrades by performing morale-boosting magic for the troops, while also doing tricks for his new celebrity friends.
Talking exclusively to What’s on TV, Richard said that life has 'been amazing' since he triumphed on last year's Britain's Got Talent.
"When I was a kid I always had two dreams… three ambitions in life, I wanted to be a musician, a soldier and a magician and I’m pleased to say I'm doing all three of those things, so I'm living the dream on three fronts really because I'm still in the army, I haven't left, a lot of people assume I've left, but I'm staying because I love my job in the army.
"But they give me a lot of free time, a lot of flexibility to go away and do shows, so I'm doing a lot on TV at the minute, I'm doing my tour, so I'm doing magic all over the country and all over the world and I'm kinda representing the army at the same time."
Discussing how Operation Magic got off the ground, Richard said: "I was very lucky. When I finished Britain's Got Talent, I had a number of production companies approach me with different ideas and things and I was very lucky that I chose one that I managed to develop the ideas in the direction I wanted to go. We've just finished filming it and, pretty much, everything I wanted to do we did in it."
Giving us some hints about what viewers can expect from the hour-long show, Richard revealed: "Well, we're very lucky with the army, because I'm one of their own, they gave us access to some areas that the media aren't ever really allowed to go. So we went to a number of the training barracks, we went to the Chelsea pensioners at the Chelsea hospital, we went to the royal military school of music with Katherine Jenkins, which was a really big one, I was really pleased with that and also backstage at the London auditions for Britain’s Got Talent."
Richard admits he’d love to do more Operation Magic, but right now he's focusing on his nationwide tour, which kicks off in Milton Keynes on April 23.
"The nice thing about the tour is that I'm gonna be getting loads of people up from the audience and involving them as well and make them, not in a scary way, if anyone's coming they don't need to be worried. But I’m going to make them the 'hero' of every trick."
And it seems Richard’s more than happy to perform the odd trick when he meets people out and about.
"People very rarely ask to see magic when they bump into me. I do a lot of selfies, but I do love performing for people in the street… if they stop and say: 'Show us something' I always try to, if I've got time."
Operation Magic can be seen on Saturday April 13 at 6pm on ITV. For full details of Richard's Tour click here.
