A Tribute to Eurovision (Part I) - My Lovely Horse!

It's that time of year again.

The Eurovision Song Contest is here to bring us its annual dose of hillarity, incredulity and sheer randomness that manages to infuriate and illuminate us all at the same time.

I don't watch it as much as I used too as the shine has been taken off the contest in recent years in my mind. Is it because the UK have fallen back to regular also-rans since the turn of the millennium? Quite probably yes. Also, the loss of the talismanic (and indeed manic) commentating style of Terry Wogan has meant that to me the competition in these isles have lost that mavaric, irreverant care-free voice that made it a 'must-watch' every May.

But whilst I may just tune in to see if Blue manage to improve the UK's lot this year, I can still look back in my own memory and in the memory of the televisual archives to some stand-out moments in Eurovision history.

My Lovely Horse!
Tomorrow I will give my own personal count-down of the Top 20 Eurovision songs of all-time in my 'Tribute to Eurovision' Part II but to begin, a tongue in cheek sideways look at Eurovision through the legendary Father's Dougal and Ted.

'A Song for Europe' is simply in my mind, the best ever episode of Father Ted (and it has stiff opposition to achieve that accolade!). It is comic gold as our peculiar heroes attempt to win for the Emerald Isle in the 1996 competition.

Here, we see Ted and Dougal's dream sequence of the video for their song...

Brilliant!

Tune in tomorrow for my more serious Part II of my 'Tribute to Eurovision' with my Greatest Hits Top 20 count-down.