JOY Eurovision

29 Feb 2012

Special Report: Auntie’s quandary – UK in 2012

First the numbers: 3, 26, 16, 22, 19, 22, 25, 5, 25, 11.

If they reflected the annual standings of a football team in any code there would be trouble for the coach, the players and the owners.

Big trouble.

Those numbers are the placings of one of the so-called Eurovision Big 5 in the last decade- Le Royaume-Uni.

Not at all impressive for the UK or for the BBC.

“Something must be done” … or so you would think.

There was a time when the Brits just turned up and came 2nd or 3rd, 7th or 11th in a “really bad year”.

That created a sense of entitlement, that’s now hubris.

With the clock ticking for entries for 2012 the BBC is still being coy or confused about who will sing what in Baku.

Surely this should be the year for the UK to regain its place as a Eurovision juggernaut and throw off its recent status as a punchline to a not very funny musical joke.

And looking at the wider picture, isn’t it time for the Brits to make nice with the rest of Europe ?

Two views on this:

Ewan Spence of escinsight.com who explains to Hikki & AJ what may be the reason for the delay and why an obvious candidate – John Barrowman – just won’t happen !

Tim Fisher of Radio Netherlands Worldwide was born in the UK and and has followed the ESC since the 1960s.

In fact, AJ’s ESC watching mirrors Tim’s exactly !

Tim, who was actively involved with this years Nationaal Song Festival, talks to Hikki & AJ about how he views the UK’s problems and how history hobbles Britain.

Podcast: Tim & Ewan’s take on the BBC’s attitude to Eurovision.

Extra: Ewan’s view on rumoured UK entrants.

One thing we can be certain about.

Whatever the BBC does will make a wave or two, probably without Katrina.