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I have been following, with reasonable closeness, the progress of 'reality' television show, Over the Rainbow, the premiss of which is that a number of young and previously unknown hopefuls audition over weeks and weeks of gruelling rounds of elimination for the role of Dorothy in the West End production of The Wizard of Oz. The show reached its finale this weekend, and the bookmakers' favourite, the appropriately named Danielle Hope, claimed victory.

It was by no means certain that she would. One of her most formidable rivals was Lauren Samuels, an older girl with more experience than most of the competitors, whose performances also tended to be more polished, and whose voice was one of the strongest and most controlled. In the following clip you can see the girls duet and battle it out in a witty little ditty from the musical Wicked:

In some ways, Lauren's general presentation and personality seem to suit the song better. Her glassy voice complements the brittle lyrics. However, as one YouTube commenter would have it, Danielle, nonetheless, "kicks bum".

Also in the final (or was it semi-final?) with Lauren and Danielle was Sophie Evans, Welsh songbird etc. from Tonypandy. Here she is, singing Over the Rainbow in the final, after the public had voted out Lauren Samuels (seen upset in one montage of clips at so often being in the bottom two when the public votes were counted):

At this stage of the competition, it was between Sophie and Danielle. Danielle had long been a favourite with both judges and public. Sophie, on the other hand, whilst having strong public support, regularly received fairly harsh comments from the panel of judges. Perhaps as a result of this, she was also – so the judges agreed – the girl who had developed most over the course of the show. It must have been a very uncertain affair, indeed, for Sophie, to battle all the way to the final. There was a rather affecting clip before her rendition of Over the Rainbow in which she spoke about how she felt she really was Dorothy. She knew that she had to give her all in the final song. You can see, in the clip, Danielle sitting by the side, and smiling a little at one point. Then came Danielle's performance of the same song:

In the background this time we see Sophie. She is not smiling. Either she is moved, or she is heartbroken because she knows her hopes have been demolished. She has sung her heart out, and Danielle has walked onto the stage, and, with seeming ease, quite surpassed her. In fact, Danielle's victory seemed almost assured from the semi-final (?), when Sophie sang Tomorrow, a sentimental favourite, Lauren sang a thoughtful, 'vulnerable' rendition of I Could Have Danced All Night, and Danielle, as if she no longer had to impress anyone and had already won, blew both of them out of the water with the very silly Seventy Six Trombones, which took on something of the aspect of a triumphal march:

I cannot argue with the public's choice. Danielle should have won, and she did win. It seems inevitable, and anything else almost unthinkable. Nonetheless, I can't help being troubled by the fact that Sophie came second. Lauren, who came third, was given a bigger send off. She, at least, was allowed the bizarre ritual that all the previous girls have had, handing back her ruby slippers while her rivals chant a perversion of one of the rhymes of the Munchkins:

We thank you very sweetly
For doing it so neatly.
You ditched her so completely
That we thank you very sweetly

This in prelude to the departing contestant singing a valedictory Over the Rainbow whilst floating away from the stage on a crescent moon.

Not only was this ritual especially dramatic in Lauren's case, leading to a standing ovation, but, just before it took place, Andrew Lloyd Webber himself said he would be phoning her.

Sophie, on the other hand, as the Dorothy in second place, was allowed no such extravagant farewell. The constraints of television formatting for the finale meant that all she had was a slightly awkward bow to the audience before walking off to her waiting family.

Concerned, I made an Internet search last night on Sophie Evans. I found an article in a Welsh newspaper saying that she already had a role in something or other (I can't find the article again now for some reason), and that her future was assured. I hope so. Still, I can't help thinking of her tearful face when Danielle came on and sang Over the Rainbow, putting Sophie's version in the shade, and wondering, if Sophie had already become Dorothy, as she said, what happened to Sophie's Dorothy? Where is she? Where has she gone? Do all dreams create an alternate reality, somewhere, where they are true? Somewhere, perhaps, over the rainbow.

Inevitably, I think of a song by Morrissey. There is a rather grungy recording of it, with poor sound quality, here:

Nervous juvenile, won't smile,
What became of you?
Did that swift eclipse torture you?
A star at eighteen and then suddenly gone
Down to a few lines on the back page
Of a faded annual.
Oh, but I remembered you.
I remembered you.

If this must be the fate of Sophie's Dorothy, I hope Sophie herself finds other roles that help her forget this disappointment.