Love some of the attitudes here, they are reflective of the general UK attitude towards Eurovision and Europe in general! Why bother with a pan-European programme, let's do a UK only version for the little Englanders out there! With the exception of three members of Bucks Fizz none of the other UK winners want to have their name associated with Eurovision any more, therefore none would take part in this type of programme. The only person who i think would have wanted to take part is Cliff and obviously there is a cloud hanging over him at the minute.
The line-up as it was managed to tick all the right boxes in that each of the major Eurovision markets, with the exception of Italy, were included. You also have to work with what you've got and the likes of Herreys and Bobbysocks do the circuit and are highly popular with the fans. Thankfully the line-up was not created with a UK TV audience in mind. Anyone expecting to see ABBA or Celine Dion on stage are living in a dreamworld. I would rather that we had a great 90 minute programme such as we did rather than another boring 2 hour talking heads show with archive footage.
It is to the BBC's credit that they made the show. After all in 2005 nearly all the EBU members took the 50th anniversary show and the BBC refused to show it. UK Eurovision fans were left feeling very short changed. This show has probably did a lot to restore the Corporation's reputation with the EBU. What the show proved, as has recent contests, is that the Scandinavian countries equally take the p*** out of the contest as the BBC do. The BBC's attitude actually isn't that different from successful countries.
I absolutely agree that it was brilliant of the BBC to host such an event and I think they pulled it off with aplomb, due respect and a tongue firmly in its cheek. I'm not sure the BBC had anything to prove to the EBU.
Brotherhood of Man are very proud of their eurovision association and speak very fondly of the contest, as do (some members) of Bucks Fizz. Both bands had decent pop careers post eurovision. I think it's often forgotten that the UK (I think) still holds the record for the number of top 5 finishes and in the 80s and 90s finished second frequently. Even Michael Ball, who at the time said he'd rather stick pins in his eyes than do the eurovision ever again, has been known to perform One Step Out of Time as part of his shows and in public appearances.
Katrina Leskanich hosted DRs 50th anniversary show, so cannot have totally disassociated her self with the contest, despite falling out with the rest of the band (which is perhaps why it wasn't featured in this show).
The DR show featured VERY few performances, majoring instead on archive playouts accompanied by (IMO dreadful) dancers and taped messages from winners and other participants. I'm not surprised the BBC decided against showing it, though whether they knew it would turn out the way it did I don't know. Interesting to hear the BBC originally wanted to host it at the Albert Hall, I'm sure that would have been a great show, and I reckon if they'd chosen there instead of the Apollo they'd have sold out too. I reckon the conservative capacity of 4,000 of the Apollo was chosen in case they struggled with anything bigger.