X Factor – Awesome? epic? No, it was Ruthless!

There’s an urban myth that haunts critics around the globe. It exists to ensure they stay the distance at even the most dullest of shows. The myth tells the tale of a newspaper reviewer who filed his review of the full show and it goes to print on the same night.

But by the interval, the reviewer had seen enough of this particular show, grabbed a programme and left. He filled in the gaps with information from the leaflet, but unbeknown to him, and his publishers, fire had broken out in the venue shortly after he left and it burned it to the ground.

There was thankfully no fire at last night’s Stars of the X Factor show at Cawdor Castle, but there was an unrecorded change to the programme that caught out a daily newspaper who was there. Or were they?

Spanish singer Ruth Lorenzo was conspicuous by her absence according to my nearest and dearest who did stay till the last ashes from the fireworks had fallen.

Although billed along with favourites Stacey Solomon, Olly Murs, Jamie ‘Afro’ Archer, Daniel Johnson and a guest appearance from former contestants the MacDonald Brothers, the show was, and I hope you’ll pardon the pun, Ruthless!

But the reviewer for our daily, who was either not a X Factor fan (and who can blame him) or had better things to do (and I know I did) Ruth ‘treated the crowd to a selection of hits from the show’.

Maybe it was something to do with deadlines, it WAS a late finish at 10:30pm, or maybe she was knocked out by Jedward’s pineapple, but the reviewers’ golden rule is if you didn’t see it, don’t report it.