Results tagged “BBC” from Boom Bang a Blog

"Welcome one, welcome all. To paraphrase a football song, Eurovision's coming home." So began Terry Wogan's commentary for the first British Eurovision in 16 years. It doesn't make sense of course. Eurovision's home is Lugano in Switzerland, where it all began in 1956 - or Geneva, the headquarters of the European Broadcasting Union - or even Dublin, the city which had hosted six of the 43 Eurovisions prior to this point. But not really anywhere in the UK. However, there was no denying that the events which took place inside Birmingham's National Indoor Arena on May 9, 1998, constituted the most anticipated Contest of recent years. Two of the 25 entrants were making headlines across the Continent in the weeks leading up to the event - and one of them would go on to win the competition.

It also marked the end of the United Kingdom's run as one of the most successful countries taking part in the competition. After 1998, there were very few glimmers of hope to be found as Blighty sank further and further down the scoreboard. But we won't worry about that here. Come with us now on a trip to the Midlands, where the British Broadcasting Corporation decided to be as non-jingoistic as possible and employ an Irishman and a Swede to host its last Eurovision to date, the winning singer won a unique glass bowl by Susan Nixon, the postcard films were a work of quiet genius and everybody laughed at a middle-aged Dutch lady.

This is one of the latest pieces of perfest pop by UK group The Ultrasonics.

And on their Facebook page today the pair hinted at a secret meeting at the BBC, involving Pete Waterman, Terry Wogan and a lot more that they couldn't say.

Considering Terry's not involved anymore, are they taking the proverbial? Or is this rather heartening news for the U of K?

It was announced by the BBC this morning that successful record producer Pete Waterman, the man who steered Kylie, Rick Astley and Steps - among others - to chart success will be behind this year's British entry to the Eurovision Song Contest.

Although the smart money (based on tabloid and supposed insider rumour) before the official press release was let loose into the ether had either Gary Barlow, Cathy Dennis or even Elton John pencilled in for the job, there is already some confusion over whether Pete will actually be writing the song, or collaborating with another composer/s and putting some studio expertise and polish on their work. It sounds a bit like the way Andrew Lloyd Webber worked with American songwriter Diane Warren on It's My Time last year.

UPDATE: Sorry, everyone. The BBC won't be revealing any news until 'early on Friday morning' now. I do hope the composer isn't getting cold feet...


First Andy Murray gets through to the final of the Australian Open and then someone on BBC Eurovision's twittering team announces that today's the day we learn the details of the UK selection for the 2010 Contest. What a sterling morning's work for Le Royaume Uni.

Past experience has led Boom Bang a Blog never to get all that excited about these announcements. Don't forget, the year we could have had Morrissey, we ended up with Scooch. However, with Your Country Needs You looking a certainty for this year's selection process once more - it's likely the identity of a well-known composer who's agreed to take on Mission Oslo will be the thrust of the imminent press release.

BBaB has its fingers crossed for Gary Barlow or Cathy Dennis. BBaB is also hoping and praying that the job hasn't gone to a former Big Brother contestant who knows how to hum quite well, or someone who last had a hit before Britain went decimal.

As soon as it's announced, we'll bring you full details and a personal reaction. Time's a ticking down...

I will never forget watching the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest. I was in my second year at Glasgow University, staying in a tenement flat not too far from the Botanic Gardens or the famous Byres Road (you really should try and do the pub crawl) which had rooms as big as ballrooms that were just as difficult to heat. Two days before the Contest was screened, Labour had swept to power after 18 years in the shadows and Tony Blair looked like the sort of bloke who could make Britannia cool again. With such a momentous seachange for Britain, it's understandable that the goings on between acts from 25 nations across the Irish Sea in Dublin's Point Theatre weren't going to register much on neither media radar nor national consciousness. But somehow, it did.

Topping off a week when, for Britain's non-Tory populous, things really could only get better - they only went and did. As though it was written fresh on the statute book in the burgeoning daylight of May 2, as though everyone had decreed it so to welcome in a new age, as though the rest of Europe suddenly realised we weren't so bad after all on this sceptred isle. On May 3, 1997, the United Kingdom won the Eurovision Song Contest.

And it's still the only one I've ever watched on my own.

The film celebrating 40 Eurovision Song Contests which opened the 1995 event. Think of it as reminder of most of your Bluffer's Guides so far...

I wasn't impressed when Ireland won Eurovision for the third successive year in 1994. I therefore refused point blank to support the Irish squad who got to the World Cup in the USA that year (despite it being the tournament Graham Taylor couldn't lead England into) and, being young, naive and foolish, refused to like anything remotely linked with Ireland for the next 12 months. As I say, I certainly was young, naive and foolish as I have an Irish surname for a start.

Anyway, I'm sure you can imagine my reaction when smiley host Mary Kennedy appeared on stage at The Point - the only time the same venue has been used in two successive years - and welcomed viewers to "What has almost become the annual Eurovision Song Contest from Ireland."

I booed. Loudly. But the slightly smug tone Mary used when introducing everyone back to Ireland (again) would soon backfire on her. This was the year when some canny countries realised it was time to play the Irish at their own game. And win.

It has been reported in at least one British tabloid today that Take Thatter Gary Barlow (secret husband of Deidre) will write (or co-write) the UK entry for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo.

Mind you, the same report suggests he's writing it for former Blue member Duncan James, but since he'll be in a West End musical on the same dates that Eurovision is taking place and a casting company has already been inviting people to audition for Your Country Needs You II, there are no guarantees that this particular piece of speculation will realise itself in reality.

But if it is true, and Gary is reading this - something like Shine would be brilliant Gary, something like Love Ain't Here Anymore less so...

A company by the name of Jayne Collins Casting has been putting out tweets asking for people to come forward and audition for the 2010 edition of Your Country Needs You, the show where a talented unknown will be paired up with a song by a proven tunesmith then sent forth to do battle at Eurovision.

What is practically a definite is that Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber won't be behind the British entry for 2010 as he has his own recent health issues and Phantom of the Opera sequel to occupy his thoughts.

The only hint we have to an identity of the songwriter for Oslo is that it will be "exciting news" for pop fans. It has already been suggested that Cathy Dennis is lined up for the job, while others have mentioned Elton John or even Gary Barlow. Boom Bang a Blog would be happy with the team who wrote The Promise for Girls Aloud or The Feeling.

The opening sequence of Eurovision 1982 - can you guess where Harrogate is?

Perhaps it was because this was the seventh time Britain had hosted the Contest in 22 years and the novelty had worn off. Perhaps it was because money was scarce in 1982. Perhaps it just hasn't aged very well - but there isn't a lot to get excited about when considering Eurovision 1982.

When you consider past BBC productions, such as the glitzy affair of 1968 and the impressive handling of the 1977 show, there is absolutely no sense of spectacle to this Contest.

Perhaps that's because it was held in such a tiny venue. The Harrogate Conference Centre (pictured) opened in North Yorkshire shortly before the event and was an ultra modern facility for its time. Ideal, perhaps, for hosting a symposium on cork flooring or the AGM of Balloon Benders UK, but in hindsight, not for an event like Eurovision, which needs to loom large on the screen. The show ended up looking like a glorified Song For Europe, with a stage that was half Top of the Pops, half Pebble Mill at One.

First he gave up the commentator's mic at Eurovision, now Sir Terry announces this morning that he is leaving his Radio 2 Breakfast Show after 16 years of Wake Up to Wogan.

Boom Bang a Blog would like to wish the venerable broadcaster all the best in his future endeavours. This does mean that the days of listening to Terry on the drive to work, then listening to Chris on the drive back, will soon become a thing of the past. Sniff.

You may have read this week that Graham Norton could be set to leave the BBC for his old stomping ground of Channel 4 after his last show, Totally Saturday, proved totally unwatchable.

This does raise one question - will this mean Graham won't be back in the commentary box for Eurovision in Norway next year?

That seems to be the rumour rumbling about the fan sections of the internet, but Boom Bang a Blog would advise fans of Graham's really rather good UK commentary in Moscow not to worry too much. Terry Wogan has not had an exclusive BBC contract for years. While he commentated at Eurovision for the Corporation, he also hosted a daytime TV show with Gaby Roslin on five and even now has a regular teatime game show on Channel 4 while still hosting his BBC Radio 2 breakfast show over the six weeks of the year that he's not on holiday.

If Graham is determined to stay in that commentary box - and if the BBC still want him to be there - we're confident they'll find a way.

The following clip is shown to students of TV production everywhere. It's the feed from industry legend and maverick, the late Stewart Morris, a stalwart of big BBC productions, as he directed his team through the hairy final moments and winning reprise of Eurovision 1977 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London.

PLEASE BE AWARE! Mr Morris does not hold back on his language, so don't click on this clip if easily offended by extremely salty words.

Our favourite bits are where he's screaming at someone to make the flags start revolving and the moment he realises the end credits have gone missing.

That's how the Contest ended, but let's delve a little deeper into how it all began in 1977...

If you read the Bluffer's Guide to Eurovision 1974, you'll have seen mention of British singer Ireen Sheer, who represented Luxembourg in Brighton.

Here she is, singing Bye Bye, I Love You, possibly the only French song ever performed with a British accent.

"Hmm... those Swedes I passed in the wings seemed quite talented..."

Poor Ireen had the misfortune of being the Eurovision entrant which followed ABBA in the draw - a bit like that stand-up comic who thought he was finally getting his big break with a slot on the Ed Sullivan Show, but ended up coming on right after The Beatles had finished their historic first performance and failed to make any impact at all.

However, an article of the BBC News magazine website yesterday listed 30 Britons who are really famous abroad, but nobody has the faintest idea who they are back in the UK. Can you guess who made the list? Check out number 26...

The 10 songs which competed in the 1974 Swedish Eurovision heats. Can you spot a winner?

The BBC had finally done it at their tenth attempt. Sandie Shaw's Puppet on a String walked away with the 1967 vote in confident barefooted strides - and the UK was keen to ride this wave of good fortune to do what no country had done before - win the Eurovision Song Contest twice in succession. And, oh, that dream was but a vote's breadth from becoming a reality.

With it being a British Eurovision, Dame Katie of Boyle naturally assumed the role of mistress of ceremonies. This time around, she wasn't stuck in one of Television Centre's pokier studios with a scoreboard and a not-especially-clappy audience. Oh, no. In 1968, our Katie strode out to greet the near 6,000 capacity of London's Royal Albert Hall in the glitziest Eurovision Song Contest yet staged. Oh yeah - and it was the first one broadcast in colour, too. Not that the BBC wanted to show off to its previously grey-eyed, now green-eyed, European broadcasting colleagues (ahem).

Everything about the 1968 Contest created an atmosphere of a home team as confident of victory as eleven lads in red had been at Wembley Stadium not quite two years earlier. If only a Russian linesman had intervened after the German jury struck.

There has never, ever, been a more controversial result to a Eurovision Song Contest than that which took place in 1963 - but it tends to be overlooked in the documentaries which get trotted out about the event. In fact, 'controversy' is a word which hangs around the staging of this particular Eurovision more than any other.

But let's consider the positives. The BBC did pull off a technically impressive production in its Shepherd's Bush HQ, then just three years old. Every act had a different stage set-up to perform their song from, be it a simple archway, a backdrop of clustered metal hoops, pools of light on a darkened set - or even superimposed visual effects.

And that's where the first finger of suspicion points. Each act looks completely different - but there was only a short space of time between each song to redress the stage. It has long been mooted - but never confirmed - that the BBC pre-recorded the performances before the broadcast. There is also a suspicious lack of microphones on show and an almost complete lack of audience response. Even Katie Boyle was based in a separate studio with the Contest's first ever electronic scoreboard - and a smaller share of the spectators.

However, that controversy is absolutely nothing compared to what happened with the final vote of the night.

Winners 1963: Grethe and Jorgen Ingmann perform Dansevise for Denmark - complete with BBC swirly spiral effects

A report here shows exactly how much staging the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest cost Russian television.

Let's hope nobody at the BBC sees it. With the latest news about cost-cutting all round at the Corporation, Auntie will offer Jemini a golden handcuff deal to be our entrant for the next five years to completely avoid any chance of winning.

Right, I've cleared it all up about Wibbly Wobbly Man.

There was a song with a wibbly wobbly connection in the running to represent the UK at the very first Eurovision (if the BBC hadn't withdrawn from the event).

However, it was actually called Wibbly Wobbly Moon and it was performed by none other than a young Petula Clark in the Festival of British Popular Song - what they called A Song For Europe in those days.

Thank you very much to Nick Deller on the ESC Nation messageboard for his help with my wibbly wobbly crisis.