Andrew Lloyd Webber’s TV search for Nancy was revealed to be the latest in a line of viewer phone vote rip-offs yesterday when 183-year-old Nancy Sykes was found alive and well and living in Loughton.

Far from missing, the sprightly cento-octogenarian has revealed that Lord Lloyd Webber has secretly consulted her on cockney etiquette throughout the series, relying on her shrewd east-end instincts make his weekly choice.

“I’ve got him hooked up direct to me hearin’ aid.” Mrs Sykes explained. “You can tell when I’m communicatin’ with him during the shows as his face goes all funny.”

She alleges that she and Lord Lloyd Webber first made contact in early in January when astonished programme researchers discovered that Nancy was not in fact lost, but living in a Publican’s Benevolent Association retirement village in Essex.

Unwilling to pull the plug on the show, the centrepiece of BBC1 Saturday Night schedule, Mrs Sykes claims that the Lord’s people “slipped her a monkey to keep stum.” Realising that her continued silence was essential to the success of the series, Mrs Sykes then contacted Lloyd Webber himself for further payments. She believes it was during their subsequent regular conversations that the theatrical impresario came to admire her authentic voice and value her judgement.

Asked why she has now come forward, Mrs Sykes says she was angered at last week’s decision when Lloyd-Webber ignored her advice in his earpiece and chose to save Niamh over Ashley.

“She’s a lovely lookin’ girl an’ all that, but I thought the big Scot was better in the sing off. I just saw red.” She says.

Viewers who have voted for their favourite Nancy over the last six weeks are reeling at the news of this latest viewer rip off.

“It’s a sham.” said one phone-voter yesterday. “I mean, we’ve been searching for Nancy and she’s been in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s right ear the whole time. It’s not right.”

Lord Lloyd Webber declined to comment yesterday, but an aide at his Buckinghamshire manor house commented that he thought his employer “might be feeling a bit of a Jessie.”