Britain's Got Grandmas - Golden buzzer as Paddy's performance wows the judges

And she made a triumphant start with a stunning performance that saw her put straight through to the semi-finals of the talent show.

The 79-year-old, who is originally from Stourbridge, amazed the celebrity judges as she was thrown around the stage by partner Nico Espinosa in the show on Saturday night.

Paddy's performance was so good that it produced the first use of a new 'golden buzzer', pressed by Amanda Holden, which puts her straight through to the live shows.

She then got a standing ovation from the audience and all four judges and was visibly moved, before Amanda jumped on stage to give her a hug.

Amanda told her: "My grandmother is 93 and I just kept thinking of her when you were being thrown around. I think she would have wanted me to press my button for her as well.

"I hope you win Britain's Got Talent."

Her dance, which began slowly before exploding into life, did not get off to the best of starts as the hard-to-please Simon Cowell pushed his red buzzer, and yawned during the performance.

But he was left agape as he watched her doing splits and tumbles as she was picked up and swung around by Nico, who is almost exactly half her age at 40.

After, Simon told her: "Wow. I apologise for what I did, because I did buzz a little early, before all the crazy things happened.

"It was slow and normal, and then it all went ballistic. It was extraordinary."

Paddy, who used to run Paddy's Fabrics in Coventry Street, danced from the age of two but gave it up to have her four children.

She then moved to Spain with husband David where he died of leukaemia, and she went to classes run by Nico and started dancing again as a way to cope.

Since then she has received worldwide fame after the pair won the Spanish version of Britain's Got Talent, Tu Si Que Vales, in 2009 and landed a 10,000 Euro prize. They narrowly missed out on a 100,000 Euro prize after losing that show's 'final of finals'.

She also secured a place in the Guinness Book of Records in 2010 after being recognised as the oldest salsa-acrobat dancer in the world.

After her performance, which was recorded at the auditions at Birmingham's NIA, she said: "When I started to do this I spoke to the family and said 'what do you think?' They said 'well, you gave everything up to have us and look after dad, and he would be proud'."