Sensational singers and owners of dancing dogs, listen up – Britain’s Got Talent is coming to Kent.

The ITV show, which gave the world Scottish singer Susan Boyle, dance troupe Diversity and Pudsey the performing dog, is holding auditions at The Hazlitt Theatre in Earl Street, Maidstone, from 6.30pm to 9.30pm next Friday (October 16).

Auditions will also take place at Margate's Black Cat Comedy and Variety Club on Tuesday.

On Monday The Park Inn, in Ladywell, Dover, will also hold auditions during an open mic night, starting from 7.30pm.

Production company Thames said it will be looking for “a variety of fresh talent” when staff visit the county next week.

The first round of auditions is performed in front of the production team, so successful applicants will have to wait a while before they meet judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams or hosts Ant and Dec.

However, the Geordie duo, who shot to fame as PJ and Duncan in children's tv series Byker Grove before embarking on a singing career of their own, have dropped into the county in the past.

The pair were filming in the skies over Maidstone in 2011 when their hot air balloon crash landed in a hedge at Heath Farm, Wateringbury, near Maidstone, and they had to be rescued by startled plasterer Jim O'Cock who was working nearby.

Kent folk who have previously done well on BGT include Maidstone dancer Joe Stribley, who reached the semi-finals this year with five-piece tap group The Beat Brothers; and Eccles man Adam Chandler, one quarter of swing band Jack Pack, and Maidstone's Lily Vincent-Frankland, part of 26-strong troupe The Addict Initiative, who both made it to last year's final.

Ashford impressionist Andrew Fleming appeared this year, mimicking Eastenders' Dot Cotton, entertainer Bruce Forsyth and pop group the Bee Gees, while Alex Nicole-Jamieson from the Isle of Sheppey joined Sweetchix, an Essex five-piece and semi-finalists in last year’s BGT series, last month.

All ages are welcome at next week's auditions but under 18s must be accompanied by an adult.

To register an interest email dawn.abrahams@thames.tv