PC ‘Dancing Dan’ has fingers crossed for wild-card route to BGT final

An officer bidding to make the finals of Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) believes appearing on television is making “the police more approachable”. Police Constable Dan Graham, aka Dancing Dan, has taken the ITV hit show by storm this year. And although the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) officer missed out on reaching the showcase final – falling at the first of the five live semi-final hurdles on Monday night (May 29) – PC Graham feels the hugely-popular TV series has helped present a different face to the force. Delighted with the support from fellow officers, he said: “This is a very new experience for the Met, we’re not usually seen in this kind of limelight. “Lots of schools have been asking me to go down there and talk to their kids about crime prevention. “Making the police more approachable is definitely one of the aims and it seems to be working so far.” Social media was ‘alive’ with the semi-final performance on Monday – from Hackney and Lambeth in London to North Wales Police praising PC Graham and his dancefloor moves. ‘Ello Ello Ello what do we have here? The amazing dancing #PCDan on #BGT wasn’t he awesome. Please vote for him on the @BGT app, we have!’ tweeted Hackney Police, while the Welsh force added: ‘Wow! What a performance by #PCDan… #Goodluck from all at @NWPolice.’ Minutes before teenage singer Kyle Tomlinson and illusionist DNA were voted through, the Kingston-based PC admitted: “I’m confident about my performance but I don’t know if I’ll get through. “I’ll leave that in the hands of the public.” The officer accepted his new-found fame can get in the way of the ‘day job’, with fans asking him to perform his moves even when he makes arrests. He said: “I tried to deal with a violent situation in Kingston town centre on Saturday night (May 27). But as I tried to deal with that, two girls came up to me with their cameras saying ‘dance’. “There are times when there’s a little bit of conflict between the two things. “But normally I get to use it to my advantage,” he went on. There are new rules to this year’s BGT that see Simon Cowell and the other three judges lose their vote. The semi-final winners are being chosen by public voting; with each night two acts making it through to the final this weekend. PC Graham still has one route left to make it into the final – if he gets the one ‘wild card’ entry available under the discretion of the judges The PC went viral last year after more than 1.5 million people watched a clip of him ‘busting’ moves as part of the running man challenge. He also made headlines by making off duty arrest in Epsom, Surrey, just hours after his first show aired while out celebrating with friends.