Cheryl: Robbie was nervous and Alex didn't mime

Cheryl: Robbie was nervous and Alex didn't mime
Cheryl: Robbie was nervous and Alex didn't mime (Image credit: Ken McKay)

X Factor judge Cheryl Cole has defended the celebrity guests on this weekend’s X Factor saying that Robbie Williams was just nervous and Alexandra Burke didn’t mime. The Girls Aloud star also told Chris Moyles on his Radio 1 show this morning that she’s never watched rival reality show Strictly Come Dancing. Talking about Robbie’s TV comeback with a performance of his new single Bodies, Cheryl said: "This is his first thing he’s done in ages, can you imagine, your first thing coming back is X Factor. I thought he looked a bit nervous, I genuinely felt like he was thinking, 'wow, I’m back, this is it'. It must be scary, he’s been through a lot, and I honestly felt like he was nervous." Last year's X Factor winner Alexandra Burke also sang her new single on the show this weekend and Cheryl argued that critics who claimed that the singer was miming were wrong. She said: "I didn't think she was miming... It wasn't a Britney case, definitely not, Britney mimed to her record... I was just so caught up in the whole production and performance... I was like having a whirl of a time that I wasn't even thinking about is she miming or is she not, I was just thoroughly enjoying her entertainment.”

Patrick McLennan

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.