Eurovision 1960: A second silver in a row for the UK and France strikes gold again as London hosts for the first time

In terms of production values, the 1960 event was certainly the most polished so far. Thirteen countries - the biggest line-up yet - took part at the events staged in the (then) relatively new Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank (it had been built for the Festival of Britain in 1951). Each act was formally introduced to the 2000-strong audience inside the venue and the millions watching at home by a woman whose name would become forever linked with Eurovision - Miss Katie Boyle - or 'Catherine Boyle', as the far posher Auntie Beeb of the early sixties introduced her.

How the Beeb began the show.

And some more 1960ish nuggets for you:

(a) The producer of the show was one Innes Lloyd. Six years later he would be appointed producer of Doctor Who, where he was instrumental in the creation of the Cybermen and the concept of regenerating one Doctor into another.

(b) The British entry - performed first in the running order - was Looking High, High, High by Bryan Johnson, the brother of Teddy who had represented Britain (with his wife Pearl) the year before. The song was written by a full-time schoolteacher - who needs Andrew Lloyd Webber?

Is "You sure could have knocked me down with the proverbial feather" the greatest Eurovision lyric ever?

Sounding suspiciously like the inspiration for Monty Python's Lumberjack Song, it became embroiled in a tussle for victory with France once the voting was underway, with France eventually pulling away as the final juries were called in.

(b) The winning song, Tom Pillibi, was about a right rascal of a man who had castles in Scotland and Montenegro - as rascals do. Jacqueline Boyer remains a music icon in France to this day and hers was the first winning song to make any sort of impact on the Europena charts. Despite being sung entirely in French, it made number 33 in the UK - with greater success in the Francophonic countries. An English version was recorded by none other than Julie Andrews and, ooh yeah, and the BBC presented Jacqueline with a silver vase as a well done for winning.

(c) Norway made its debut in London. The song Voi Voi, performed by Nora Brockstedt, finished fourth - something of a false dawn for a nation which would spend much of the next 30 years propping up the scoreboard. Nora, now in her early 80s, is still recording and still performing, rather like Norway's answer to a folksy Jane McDonald.

(d) At one point in the voting, Katie couldn't summon up the jury in Austria - but when she finally made the connection to Vienna she got a hug round of applause. They should really have called the techies out from behind the scenes to take a bow.

There's a man on a ladder moving those numbers around.

(e) As digital and computerised scoreboards were a futuristic dream in 1960, the BBC had a man on a ladder inside the scoreboard, manually adjusting the result for each country as the votes were called. Katie had to tell the crowd inside the hall off at one point - as they cheered every vote for the UK so loudly, she couldn't hear the score which followed.

With France as the winners for the second time in three years, Eurovision had become a great big Contest-shaped boomerang. After moving from Cannes to London, it was bouncing straight back from the British capital to the home of the Film Festival. And in 1961, the UK produced its first Eurovision entry which became a smash hit with record buyers everywhere and a country which had never won up to this point would take the honours.