Britain's Got Talent: Who won Britain's Got Talent in 2023?

ITV's hit talent show Britain's Got Talent has been back on our screens recently and the final is fast approaching.

The competition, which has been running since June 2007, is fronted by Ant & Dec with a judging panel currently composed of Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and Bruno Tonioli.

The show aims to find the next best talent act in the country with contestants ranging from singers to magicians and the winners secure both a cash prize and the chance to perform at the Royal Variety Performance.

And as season 17 of the hit show reaches its conclusion, it feels like an appropriate time to look back on last year's contest and who won Britain's Got Talent in 2023.

Britain's Got Talent 2023 final

The 2023 edition of Britain's Got Talent began on 15th April and ran until 4th June with Cowell, Holden, DIxon and Tonioli making up the judging panel for the first time after David Walliams departed following the previous year's series.

After the usual batch of audition episodes, Britain's Got Talent moved onto the semi-final stage at the end of May, with live shows taking place across five consecutive nights.

Each night, two acts would book their place in the Grand Final. The first act would be the act with the most votes from the public while the second would be picked by the judges from the next two acts with the highest votes.

It culminated in a grand final featuring a variety of acts from a young magician to an acrobatic duo to an opera singer.

Viggo Venn wins 2023 show

But the question is - who went on to win last year's series of Britain's Got Talent?

Well, after each act made their final performance and the votes were counted, presenting pair Ant & Dec announced the three acts left in the competition.

They were magician Cillian O'Connor, dancer Lillianna Clifton and comedian Viggo Venn.

O'Connor was then revealed to have come third with Clifton finishing as runner-up, meaning the winner of Britain's Got Talent 2023 was comedy act Viggo Venn.

Venn's act was a unique one, unlike anything ever seen before on Britain's Got Talent.

The act was focused on a series of humorous skits in which he donned high-visibility clothing with musical accompaniment, most notably the 2000 song 'One More Time' by Daft Punk in the final and the 1999 Eminem hit 'My Name Is' in the semi-finals.

His first performance in the live shows also involved recordings of each of the Britain's Got Talent judges saying their names on loop.

And the icing on the cake in Viggo Venn's performance was his humorous facial expressions accompanied by his springy hair and fearless approach to his act.

Head judge Cowell had labelled the act as "the most stupid act" they had had on the show that year but Viggo Venn had the last laugh as he scooped prize money of £250,000 and went on to perform at the Royal Variety Performance in December last year.

Britain's Got Talent 2023 final runners-up

Third place in last year's edition of Britain's Got Talent went to young magician O'Connor, who won the public vote in the fifth semi-final in last year's competition before nearly going the distance in the grand final.

His act in the final featured a variety of sleight-of-hand tricks and began with O'Connor appearing to rip apart a comic book, which repaired itself.

O'Connor also opted to involve Ant McPartlin in his final act and was praised by the judges for the growth in his confidence.

Despite beating her previously in the fifth semi-final, O'Connor was pipped to second spot in the grand final by dancer Clifton.

Clifton was a solo dancer who began her Britain's Got Talent journey by dancing to 'Train Wreck' by James Arthur in her audition and went on to dance to Sara James' cover of 'Running Up That Hill' by Kate Bush in the semi-finals.

As for the final, Clifton opted for a high-energy performance to 'Tattoo' by Loreen, showcasing a variety of flips and pirouettes.

It was an emotional performance which naturally went down well with the judges but it could only earn Clifton the runner-up spot.

After the final, it was revealed that Viggo Venn won with 22.5 per-cent of the votes, while Clifton received 13.1 per cent and O'Connor received 11.8 per cent.