24 September 2020, 15:54 | Updated: 15 October 2020, 20:27
This was the moment when Chris de Burgh surprised Stars in their Eyes champion Ian Moor, back when the ITV show was the best entertainment show on television.
"Tonight Matthew, I'm going to be..."
Back in the '90s, before TV was taken over by reality shows and competitions like Big Brother, The X Factor and Strictly, variety and game shows were the Saturday night television of choice.
In fact, it could be argued that ITV's Stars in their Eyes was a precursor to what would come next. A talent competition where everyday folk could get their 15 minutes of fame, and viewers at home would pick their fate.
Hosted at its peak by Matthew Kelly, the show saw people impersonate their favourite singers. Usually, they were pretty darned good, both in terms of resemblance and vocal similiarities.
But the greatest contestant of all time was surely then-24-year-old Ian Moor, a science technician from Yorkshire who appeared in the 1999 series as his hero, Chris de Burgh.
Stars in Their Eyes 1999 Ian Moore's First performance as Chris de Burgh
Not only did he look just like Chris, but his voice was spot on with his rendition of 'Lady in Red'. He ended up winning that year's series by some distance.
Chris was a big fan, with Ian saying at the time: "After the show I was on a high, several thousand feet up in the air. I went to the after-show party and someone came up to me and said, 'Chris is on the phone'.
"I dashed out and had to phone him back. He said he'd been sitting in a restaurant saying to his mate, 'When's he on, when's he on?'.
"I think he was reasonably impressed with me, otherwise he wouldn't have phoned."
Later that year, ITV brought back all previous winners of the first 10 series in a Champion of Champions series. Bizarrely, two of the 10 winners impersonated Marti Pellow. People couldn't get enough of Wet Wet Wet back then.
Ian was voted the best of the best, with double the amount of votes than the singer in second place.
A year later, Ian was asked back to give another burst of 'Lady in Red', except this time, the actual Chris de Burgh appeared as a surprise guest and joined in on the song, much to Ian's amazement.
Stars in Their Eyes 2000 Ian Moore and Chris de Burgh Duet
Ian was such a success that he even recorded his own album titled Naturally, reaching number 38 in 2000.
Stars in their Eyes has been revived on several occasions since then, including a poor attempt at a comedy-hybrid version with Harry Hill in 2015.
Could it be time to bring it back but keep the simple, original format? We'd certainly be watching!
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