IT is a quest for stardom that captured the nation's imagination, giving hope to both young and old who harbour a secret dream of one day becoming famous.

IT is a quest for stardom that captured the nation's imagination, giving hope to both young and old who harbour a secret dream of one day becoming famous.

And it seems that not even the acid tongues of the judges on Britain's most popular talent show can dampen the ambition of Norfolk's most unlikely TV celebrity.

After singing his way into the last 50 contestants in this year's X Factor competition, octogenarian Cyril Grant has vowed to give showbiz another shot.

The former carpenter, who lives in Swaffham, is now applying to appear on ITV's other popular talent show, Britain's Got Talent.

The competition has a much broader focus than X Factor and features acts raging from strongmen and clowns to dog trainers and musicians.

Mr Grant said: “I think I should have a very good chance. I will be able to play my saxophone as well as sing and with the X Factor I could not do that.

“I'm only 80 years and six months old and I am going to go for it.”

Mr Grant, whose ambition is to perform in front of thousands at a packed Wembley stadium, hopes his next appearance will also give a very important lesson to the younger generation.

“I am going to teach the young ones something,” he said. “Most of them are cry babies and when they fail they just cry, whereas I am raring to go and just pick myself up and start again.”

During his time on X Factor Mr Grant, who was born in Guyana but came to England in 1954, proved a little more life experience can be a very valuable thing.

Throughout the show's gruelling boot camp auditions he kept his trademark smile and remained cool while younger contestants around him began to crumble under the pressure.

And his renditions of Amazing Grace and Frank Sinatra's Fly Me to the Moon even softened the often razor sharp comments from Simon Cowell.

After Mr Grant's last performance he admitted the pensioner would be adored by the public.

In fact the multi-millionaire developed a bit of a soft spot for Mr Grant, even going so far as to pay for him to have new hearing aids fitted by specialist at Harley Street to ensure his performances were top notch.

Mr Grant's Saturday night TV appearances also gained him a large internet fan club on sites such as Bebo, Facebook and Youtube and the news of his return to the talent show fray is expected to have chat room's buzzing once again.