I was the closest to thinking: They actually want to kill me'

...Simon Cowell on show's most thrilling performances yet

- NICOLA METHVEN

Trying not to flinch as a blindfolded man hits a watermelon with a mallet next to his head... Simon Cowell admits he feared for his life.

The fruit crusher is just one of many weird and wacky acts taking part in the 18th series of Britain's Got Talent.

When the new series starts next Saturday, the audience will see Simon lying on the stage with bits of watermelon flying all around as co-judges Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon scream in horror.

When a crew member finally steps in to stop the act, Simon looks dazed and shaken as he sits up and asks: "Are you f***ing crazy?" He tells the Mirror: "It's that feeling when you kind of think somebody doesn't want you on the show any more. It was that.

"It was the closest, genuinely, where I'm thinking 'they actually want to kill me. And I swear to God, that's how I felt because this guy got really nervous and he'd slipped and was shaking as he was smashing these watermelons.

"The health and safety guys, normally quite annoying, actually stopped him.

Thank God, they saved my life.

"When you're up there, you're immersed in it and then you go home and think 'I nearly got killed 12 times." Amanda, 53, said watching Simon nearly get battered had been horrific.

"It was so precarious because it was melon they were smashing, so the water was everywhere," Amanda recalls.

"Any kind of safety that there must have been was out the window. It was very hard to watch."