A singer from Beckton made the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent.

Marvin Muoneke, 22, is one half of The Ratpackers, a jazz-singing duo who take inspiration from Sammy Davis Jr and Frank Sinatra.

The pair successfully made it into Friday’s semi-final but failed to make it into the last round.

“It was a great experience and I met some amazing, life-long friends,” he told the Recorder.

“The beauty of the semi-final was everyone was so supportive of each other.”

Being on the stage of the Hammersmith Apollo was “really something to behold,” he added.

For his audition for the show, which was filmed in January, Marvin and partner Dennis DeMille stunned the audience with their rendition of New York, New York.

Despite not making it into the final, Marvin and Dennis received praise from the judges.

“To get the thumbs up and seal of approval from the great Robbie Williams was really something to remember,” Marvin said.

He added: “Simon’s comments were very encouraging.”

Marvin’s love of music began at school, at Kingsford Community.

He was nicknamed ‘The Jazz Man’, and success continued to come his way. After performing at various school events, he aspired to have a career in music. He started writing and arranging songs when he attended Havering Sixth Form College, before going to study music at university in Weston-Super-Mare.

He said: “When I first moved I was doing lots of gigs, and I did one at a pub called The Imperial.

“Dennis was also on the bill that month, and when he saw there was another jazz singer, he was interested to see what I was like.

“Weston is a rock town, not jazz, so when him and his wife came to watch me he was really impressed.”

Dennis and Marvin formed a trio with another singer, Eleazar, before he dropped out suddenly.

“To this day we don’t know why he dropped out,” Marvin said.

“But Dennis’ wife said we should perform just the two of us, and we realised she was right.”

The duo are going to be considering their options in the coming days, Marvin said, but they “definitely” want to continue performing.