No-one expected to see Darth Vader playing the Star Wars theme on a child’s recorder.

Nor did they anticipate hearing the bitter and twisted lyrics of ‘Your Boot is Full’, a parody of James Blunt’s greatest hit.

But they were the two hilarious highlights of the Brenda Awards 2011 – the annual tongue-in-cheek awards event that sees the Birmingham commercial property sector raise funds for disadvantaged children in the West Midlands.

This year’s event, staged at the Burlington Hotel and attended by 365 influential property professionals, collected more than £20,000 for Property for Kids.

With a theme of ‘Birmingham Property’s Got Talent’, the show was hosted by Jilly Cosgrove, of Barques Design, Kathryn Small, of Eversheds, and the Brendas’ own ‘Ant and Dec - Ed Gamble, of Jones Lang LaSalle, and Simon Robinson, of GBR Phoenix Beard.

Awards – a collection of golden garden gnomes - were presented to nine brave performers whose acts ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Songsmith Magdalene Konig, of Shoosmiths Solicitors, wowed the crowd with her top class rendition of Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’. Dane ‘The King’ Hopwood, of KWB, certainly did it his way with an impression of Elvis singing ‘My Way’.

Rachel Titley, of EC Harris LLP, had the force with her when she played the theme to Star Wars on a recorder while wearing a Darth Vader mask. Tony Nash and Jon Andrews, directors of Stoford Developments, baffled us with a banjo and juggling double act.

The loudest laughs of the event echoed around the Burlington when Dave Mansell, business development manager at McDowall Air Conditioning, sang a self-penned parody of James Blunt’s ‘You’re Beautiful’.

The twisted lyrics gave guests a hilarious insight into Dave’s divorce proceedings and secured him the new Platinum Gnome Award.

Brenda committee member Jilly Cosgrove said: “Once again all our friends involved in commercial property across the Birmingham area have shown how very generous they are by helping Property for Kids raise more than £20,000.

“Thanks to Birmingham Property’s Got Talent, we’ve also discovered some stars of the future who may want to give up their day jobs for a career on stage and screen, although Simon Cowell hasn’t picked up the phone yet.”

Winners of this years awards were:

* Never A Bodhran Moment Award – Brian Hession – associate solicitor at Eversheds, who played the Irish drum, also known as a bodhran.

* Ant & Ed’s Off The Clock Award – Magdalena Konig – trainee solictor at- Shoosmiths, who sang Adele’s Someone Like You.

* All Shook Up Award – Dane Hopwood – property building surveyor at KWB, who performed an Elvis Impersonation,

* Didn’t He Do Well Award – Chris Plumley – local government lead at Anthony Collins Solicitors, who sang Delilah.

* Easy Lover Award– Ciaran Nolan – national acquisitions manager at Dignity – who sang Lady in Red.

* Beyond The Call Of Duty Award – Rachel Titley – senior cost consultant at EC Harris, who played the recorder to the Star Wars theme tune.

* Achilles Heel Award – Tony Nash and Jon Andrews – directors of Stoford Developments. Tony juggled with fruit and Jon played the banjo.

* Fine Tuned Award – Chris Mellor- contracts manager at Overbury, who sang Amsterdam by Jacques Brel and played a 12-stringed guitar.

* Misheard Lyrics Award – Dave Mansell – business development manager at McDowall Air Conditioning, who sang a parody that he wrote to the James Blunt tune of Beautiful and also played guitar and also did a rope trick mimicking Joe Pasquali, Billy Connelly and Frank Spencer.

He also won the new Platinum Gnome Award that had been introduced for this year’s awards.