Sunday, May 25, 2008

Wogan gets the huff

Curiously, since he's spent the last three decades commentating on Eurovision discussing dresses, hairstyles, body shape, national characteristics and fair dash of whimsy, Wogan's threatening to quit because erm, it's not a proper music contest "any more".

Somehow surprised that a duff song delivered by someone with no charisma came last - a song, let's not forget, that was chosen by his intervention - he's now talking about calling it a day:

Terry said his producer, Kevin Bishop, was stepping down after this year's contest.

"He and I have to decide whether we want to do this again," he said.

"Indeed, western European participants have to decide whether they want to take part from here on in because their prospects are poor."

Apparently, Wogan sees himself as some sort of showbiz Moses, about to lead his children to a brighter future where we're no longer at risk of block votes from the former Balkan nations. Or perhaps to split the union to give England the chance of a generous Celtic vote.

We could, on the other hand, try and enter a half-decent song.


7 comments:

Paul Wells said...

We watched eurovision last night and it was as fantastic as ever. However, Wogan's increasingly bitter and unfunny mumblings are starting to spoil it a little and I really wouldn't miss him if he gave it up. The only argument I can think for keeping him on is that at least it would stop Fearne bloody Cotton getting her greedy hand on it.
We had a boring song with a sub-par performance. How we think that could ever compare with such sublime slices of pop as the Greek entry or the Latvian Sea Pirates, I'll never know....
Sad not to see a NoRock live blog though :)

Anonymous said...

"It's not a proper music contest"

Yup and entering a reject from a karaoke contest proves we were already well aware of that. Gosh I am fed up of hearing people complain about this contest every year. Why can't there just be one year where this country doesn't display a large amount of sour grapes? Wouldn't it be nice for once to hear the admission : "Wow. The obvious winner obviously won. We was beat fair and square" (Funnily enough I'm not that interested in the contest. I'm just fed up of hearing all the nonsense that goes with it)

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed last night's show, and didn't feel too aggreived that Britain's less-than-stellar entry did so badly. It didn't stand a chance really; The song was like one of the session-band filler tracks used to pad out a Sunday Express Disco compilation. It was never going to pose a serious threat to the likes of
- Bosnia & Herzegovina's barking washing-line performance
- The pirates
- Russia's entry, complete with astrologer Justin Toper figure-skating on a rink the size of a beer-mat

Maybe it's time to accept the voting patterns as part of the fun, along with ropey male/female hosts, baffling introduction films and national representitives building their parts when announcing the votes. It's not as if Britain is averse to entering international contests that it hasn't won in years...

By the way, if Wogan does make good his threat to leave, any suggestions for a replacement? I've heard mention of Jonathan Ross and Graham Norton. Roland Rivron? David Mitchell? I'd pay good money for Charlie Brooker to do the job...

Anonymous said...

Oh goodness me, Charlie Brooker doing Eurovision would make me weep with glee.

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

Is Katie Boyle still alive?

Inevitably, though, it'll be George Lamb, won't it?

Anonymous said...

Gah, that's a depressingly possible prospect... Just seen some inspired suggestions on another messageboard;

- Harry Hill
- Bill Bailey
- Simon Amstell (although the words 'sledgehammer' and 'nut' spring to mind)
- Paddy O'Connell and Mel Giedroyc (they've covered the semi-finals the last few years)
- Danny Baker

There were also some mentions of those two gonks from the Friday Night Project, but I'll ignore those as the rantings of drunks.

Thinking about it, in a perfect world, for me it'd be Lauren Laverne. I reckon she'd have the right mix of sharp wit and genuine love of the contest (didn't Kenickie appear on an album of Eurovision covers once?)

Or Jo O'Meara, of course. She'd be able to enlighten us between songs with her insights into each country's culture. *stamps internet troll-boots*

Anonymous said...

Let's face it. They'll probably get someone who is perfectly qualified and adequate for the program to do it. Unfortunately, that person will probably enrage certain elements of the British press for being too-PC or any number of other ways they can get at Europe.

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