Singing coach: 'X Factor just wants to ridicule'

A singing coach who worked with failed X Factor contestant Ceri Rees has accused show bosses of 'exploiting' the 54-year-old. Viewers saw Ceri, who has auditioned for the show four times, struggle through an audition on Sunday's show. The seven-minute section of the programme showed her being rejected by the judges after tuneless performances of I Dreamed A Dream from the musical Les Miserables and I Will Always Love You. Vocal coach Amanda Roberts told The Sun she tried to persuade producers not to feature Ceri. She said: "The show just wants someone to ridicule. The producers and judges should hang their heads in shame - they are exploiting a vulnerable woman. "When they approached her to go back I rang the producers and told them it wouldn't be good for her. We had a slanging match for half an hour - they spoke to me like mud." The clip of Ceri, from Bridgend in Wales, was also criticised by mental health charities. Mark Davies, director of communications at the charity Rethink Mental Illness, said: "While we can't speculate on the state of Ceri's mental health, she does appear vulnerable and it was clear she had been set up to fail." A spokeswoman for the show said: "The X Factor is open to everybody to apply and we regularly welcome back contestants who want to audition again. "Ceri has been taking singing lessons since she last appeared on the show and she wanted to have her vocals judged by a new panel as she hadn't been successful with the previous line-up. Her audition was the same length as the other key stories we have featured in the series and Ceri has assured the team today that she is happy she auditioned for the show."

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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.