Hopeful voted off TV contest plans move to London

OVER The Rainbow contestant Jenny Douglas today said she hoped to attend a London drama school and still dreamed of West End stardom despite being eliminated from the reality show.

The 18-year-old singer, whose performance on Saturday night had "moments of magic" according to panellist Charlotte Church, promised she would "never give up" on becoming a stage star and believes her run on the BBC show has already made her a better performer.

The South Queensferry teenager also described criticism that she lacked rapport with the terrier set to play Dorothy's dog Toto as "nonsense".

Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, who is leading the search for an unknown to star in his production of The Wizard of Oz, described Jenny as "very talented" but a "bit at sea" with the animal on stage.

Jenny returned to her parents' home last night after becoming the sixth person to be voted off the show.

She said: "I'm feeling pretty good. In fact, I'm feeling over the moon. I'm just really really excited about what will happen next. I don't see leaving the show as necessarily a bad thing. I would've loved to be Dorothy, but it was so amazing to get that far.

"Every morning I would wake up and try my best for the whole day. I was really committed to whatever I was doing. But when I found myself in the sing-off, I sort of knew I was going home. I feel now that I should've fought a little bit harder and sung a little bit better."

Vying to stay in the competition, she and fellow contestant Lauren Samuels sang competing versions of Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, but Jenny failed to convince Lord Lloyd Webber to keep her in.

He said: "You were, let's face it, a bit at sea with Toto. It made me think, my goodness, in a great big theatre like the Palladium it all could go a bit wrong for you."

But Jenny believes the criticism was unwarranted. She said: "I love animals and I've a good rapport with dogs. But working with animals can be unpredictable and when the dog ran off stage while I was performing, I tried to incorporate it into what I was doing and make the best off it.

"If that was counted as a negative against me I don't think that was very fair. It's nonsense that I don't have a rapport with dogs."

Jenny, a musical theatre student at Motherwell College, said she had no plans to turn her back on showbusiness despite losing out.

The former Tynecastle High School pupil added: "I learned so much from being on the show, especially with things I improved on like the dancing.

"I know that as a performer I still have a long way to go, but I'll never give up. From the previous shows, there have been so many Josephs, Marias and Nancys who didn't win but went on to be offered parts and appear on the West End stage.

"That is what I want to achieve but I think I will have to go to study in London. I will be looking to go to drama school there and continue with my career."