A trio of magicians failed to cast a spell on Britain's Got Talent viewers, who raged about their act online by describing it as "rubbish" and declaring they were "bored". The group went by the moniker Maverick Magicians and performed a complicated trick on the ITV show, in which they asked new judge KSI to write down a "secret piece of information".

One member of the group then took fellow judge Simon Cowell on a shopping trip as they left the theatre to buy a watermelon at a nearby shop. When they returned, they had KSI take a hammer to the fruit to reveal a piece of paper which, to his complete amazement, contained the name of one of his former schoolfriends.

Unamused viewers slammed the act, pointing out that it went over the two-minute allotted audition time, among other complaints. Taking to X, one wrote: "Well, that was a rubbish act! Also longer than two minutes." Another added: "#BGT boring and it would take too long at Royal Variety."

A third found them tedious, saying: "Great guys but this is dragging on for so long and it's obviously staged. I'm getting bored of these kind of magic acts. Not for me I'm afraid!"

A fourth concurred, adding: "This act is just not it, presentation is terrible, way too much yapping, a pointless trip to grab some random fruits and the final magic is bland."

A fifth chimed in: "How many of these run of the mill magicans are we going to get? I'm bored at this point. Another staged magic act!"

However, they did have fans in some quarters, with one viewer gushing: "They're freaking awesome and pretty hot too."

The group, comprised of Akshay Badiani, Edwin aka The Modern Mentalist and Jamie Nichols, seemed to make a better impression on the judges, who were amazed by the trick and put them through to the next round.

They were the second act to take to the stage on the latest edition of the show, following the Welsch Master Team, who are a gymnastics team from Switzerland.

Third up was wannabe singer/songwriter Alamgir , who was on stage for the first time in his life.

He performed a self-penned dance track for the audience, but other than guest judge Stacey Solomon, he failed to impress - with KSI buzzing him just seconds into his act.