A WALLINGFORD couple have become overnight stars after capturing millions of hearts with their musical love story and passion for bellringing on Britain’s Got Talent.

Ten million viewers saw Alan and Gay Cooper’s performance of Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On last Saturday night, and their audition has already been watched 240,000 times on YouTube.

The Wallingford couple, who met at a recorder class and love handbells so much that they provided their own musical accompaniment at their wedding, are already being stopped in the street and asked for photographs.

They face more live TV performances in their bid to appear at the Royal Variety Performance.

The couple faced a bemused reaction when they took the stage at Birmingham’s Alexandra Theatre armed with their collection of handbells.

But when they started ringing out their own version of the Titanic hit, the audience and judges Michael MacIntyre, Amanda Holden and David Hasselhoff began to sway, sing and cheer.

Baywatch actor Hasselhoff described their rendition as “absolutely breathtaking”.

Mr Cooper, a scientist at HR Wallingford, said: “It was very intimdating because we are not used to playing to crowds like that.

“The audience are told they can express their views — both positive and negative.

“You do have to be brave, but it is as not as though we were doing something physically dangerous.”

The 59-year-old musical director of Wallingford Handbell Ringers added: “At work, some people were really impressed, and some people said we must have been crazy to go on.”

Mrs Cooper said: “We never expected the reaction we got. Even The Hoff was joining in.”

The couple, who spent the weekend at a handbell ringing convention in Surrey, first met when Gay started recorder classes in Watlington in the mid-1980s.

She said: “Alan was the best player there. He only had a pushbike at the time, and he used to phone me every Friday after work and ask for a lift to Watlington for the recorder class.”

When Gay moved temporarily to London, Alan took up handbell ringing, and soon the couple both caught the bug.

Mrs Cooper said: “At one point I came along and heard the Wallingford Ringers ringing in the market place at the Victorian Evening.

“I remember thinking how beautiful it sounded and, unlike recorders, you do not have to worry about tuning the bells.”

They have been performing as the Aeolian Chimes duo for 12 years, and bell-ringing played a big part in their wedding cermony in 2007 with the bride ringing handbells down the aisle Fellow handbell ringer Carla Runciman, who normally performs with the couple as the Pizzazz trio, said she was “too shy for TV”.