Britain’s Got Talent winner you probably forgot about who’s enjoying huge success

Britain’s Got Talent finale 2026 airs this weekend but there’s one winner from a decade ago you may have forgotten all about

Ant and Dec will be back on ITV on Saturday night (May 30) as they host the 2026 final of Britain’s Got Talent as the latest series draws to an end.

A total of 10 finalists will take to the stage to compete for a place on the Royal Variety Performance bill and for £250,000. They are the golden buzzer winners – Matty Juniosa (singer), LMA (dance group), Liqei Yang (fire juggler), Sonny Green (poet) and Celestial (drone artists).

And the winners of the public vote – Anastasiia and Salsa (dog act), Fabian Fox (magician), Ted Hill (comedian), Rafferty Coope (magician) and The Hawkstone Farmers Choir.

They will all be hoping to follow in the footsteps of last year’s winner, magician Harry Moulding, and of course previous winners like Paul Potts, Diversity and Ashleigh and Pudsey.

But there’s one winner who you may have forgotten about who hasn’t garnered as many headlines as those previously mentioned. Richard Jones triumphed back in 2016 when he beat runners up Wayne Woodward and Boogie Storm to the title.

The former soldier, who was born in London and grew up in Essex, impressed audiences with his act as a magician. Richard joined the British Army in 2010 and studied for one year at the Royal Military School of Music.

He spent three years with the band of the Parachute Regiment before being posted to the band of the Household Cavalry in 2014 as a mounted dutyman and performed as a bandsman in the Trooping the Colour, as part of the 90th birthday celebrations of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

A decade ago he became the first magician to win BGT and had viewers and the judges impressed from the start. During his audition he performed a mind-reading trick using a book with all four judges. He correctly predicted the exact word Amanda Holden had chosen on a random page.

For the semi-final he had the judges read his mind using only cups of tea, performing seemingly impossible reveals that left the panel completely stunned. And his final trick saw him perform a variation of a classic card trick – tearing and burning a signed playing card before magically restoring it.

While doing the illusion, he narrated the incredible true story of Fergus Anckorn, a World War II prisoner of war who used magic tricks to survive starvation and boost his fellow soldiers’ morale. The act concluded with Jones bringing a 97-year-old Anckorn out onto the stage, bringing the judges to tears.

Head judge Simon Cowell had told him: “You, sir are a wizard. That has to be magic. You are genuinely a nice guy who has magic powers.”

As Richard, now 35, took the crown he said: “I can’t believe it thank you so much. I want to thank my family, Fergus, I want to thank the Magic Circle, they’ve been absolutely fantastic, everyone’s been so supportive.”

After his success on BGT, Richard appeared on the bill at the Royal Variety Performance in 2016 and a year later he had his own Saturday night prime time TV series on ITV called Operation Magic.

Today Richard is as busy as ever with regular theatre shows and charity performances which he keeps fans updated about on his official Instagram page. His latest tour, The Sound of Magic, sees him combine music and magic.

In an interview with Northern Ireland World he said: “I’ve been a pianist since I was very young and I always wanted to find a way of linking music with magic. My new show is more about the audiences: their experiences, decisions and emotions in relation to music.

“Luck is a running theme throughout the show. I strongly believe that if we picture ourselves as super lucky and good things happening to us, we’re more likely to draw those things to us.”

As for Cowell, Richard only had positive things to say: “He’s probably the nicest person I’ve met on TV. People always see him as the tough guy, but he’ll always try and make every single person he meets feel appreciated and special in some sort of way. That’s probably why he’s been so successful.”

Britain’s Got Talent: Live Final is on ITV1 on Saturday, May 30 at 7pm