Video and pictures: Shropshire's Britain's Got Talent success stories

And the show has often been a springboard for them to follow their dreams of a career in showbusiness.

As this year's contestants prepare for Sunday night's live final, we have taken a look at what happened to this area's most famous acts when the whirlwind of appearing on one of the country's most-watched programmes died down.

Acts from Shropshire and its borders have had their fair share of success on the show over the years.

Swimmer Zoe Cooper from Telford, found fame as one quarter of synchronised swimming act Aquabatique, which appeared on the show in 2012.

The 31-year-old has never looked back from her appearance.

"Britain's Got Talent has certainly enhanced my life," she said. "Two weeks after the show I had been asked to model and launch the Nichole De Carle swimwear range."

After the show Zoe went on to star in the Disney film The Muppets Most Wanted, model swimwear for Stella McCartney during London Fashion Week and appeared with Patrick Kielty on Sport Relief and Tom Daley on ITV hit show Splash.

On May 17 Zoe gave birth to a baby boy called Sebastian James Reeve. She is currently on maternity leave.

She added: "For the last five/six months I have not being doing any shows as I was pregnant.

"However I trained up until the day before I had him.

"Of course I had a water birth and he is already a water baby.

"I have been watching BGT this year and my favourite is the trampoline guy – he really makes me laugh.

"I like the random acts – if the magician won that would be great."

Ballroom and Latin dancers AJ Pritchard, 19, of Burleydam, and Chloe Hewitt, 18, from No Mans Heath, near Whitchurch, were knocked out in the semi finals in 2013.

Despite not reaching the final, the show provided a platform for the dancers to showcase their talents.

Since then the talented duo have travelled all over the country winning competitions including recently being crowned Youth European Latin champions.

AJ and Chloe are the current Under-21 British National Latin champions and the Under-21 UK Closed Latin champions.

The pair have danced together for eight years and are coached by AJ's dad Adrian Pritchard, at the family's dance academy in Burleydam.

Animal trainer Kate Nicholas, from Norbury, near Whitchurch, danced her way into the final with her collie Gin in 2008 – but is now training dogs to sniff out bombs in Afghanistan.

She has joined the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, or RAVC.

She works in the puppy development section, the canine boot camp where new dog recruits are taught basic obedience before further training.

There she uses the same training techniques which found her success with Gin.

The trainer also appeared in TV series Animal Heroes, an ITV documentary series about the work of the RAVC.

Acts from across the West Midlands have also shone on the show.

When Connie Talbot came second in the first series in 2007, it was hard for the six-year-old to come to terms with being shot to national fame.

But now, as a 14-year-old, the singer from Streetly is proving a hit with an army of fans across the world.

In South Korea she gets a response normally reserved for boybands and film stars, and sold out a tour of the country last year.

During her first audition, Simon Cowell called her "pitch perfect" and fellow judge Amanda Holden burst into tears when she sang Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

She was one of the favourites to take the top prize, but in the end lost out to Paul Potts, who himself has become a worldwide star.

Connie's debut album went on to sell over 250,000 copies and reached number one in three countries.

And with time on her side, Connie hopes to one day match the success of her idol Taylor Swift.

She is busy in the studio recording with Grammy Award winning music producer Kipper Eldridge, who won awards for his work with Sting and R'n'B queen Mary J Blige.

The schoolgirl is also due to be among the headline acts at the new Skip Festival at The O2 Arena, to showcase the top Youtube performers. in September.

Her mother Sharon says that Connie had an amazing time on the the talent show and was now making plans for the future.

"She's been in the studio with two-time Grammy winner Kipper. She's still loving music and working on that. She's recording some original songs now which is quite interesting. We can't say too much about it, but it's for her new album for a future release.

"She's still enjoying what she's does and plays her guitar and the piano and just building up a catalogue of songs," Sharon says.

With her sparkly jacket and exuberant renditions of Grease hit You're The One That I Want and Buck Fizz's Making Your Mind Up, organist Jean Martyn was an instant hit with the judges in 2011.

After years of building up a following on the local live circuit, the Brewood performer's bid at stardom was watched by 14 million viewers.

And despite finishing 10th, she says the experience gave her career a huge boost.

She has had a busy few years including marrying her long-term partner at St Andrew's Church in Weston-under-Lizard last October.

Highlights include playing to 32,000 people at a music festival in Dartmouth, performing at a Wolves match at Molineux on Boxing Day and playing at St James's Palace on four occasions, once with Vera Lynn.

She is returning to Buckingham, Palace in two weeks where she will entertain and speak to the veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan and the world wars.

And she took part in Text Santa last year, helping keep Phillip Schofield awake during his 24-hour presenting marathon.

She said life had been 'one rollercoaster of wonderful, magical experiences' since BGT and added: "Life is just amazing. One of the lovely things about BGT is I didn't go in it to win it – I went in it to take part.

"Each time I went on stage there was thunderous applause which I will never forget."