Cue:

Eurovision / Can we win again?

15.12.16  Simon Woolcott

I think we know by now that Brexit means Brexit. But we have yet to discover whether we are having a hard Brexit, a soft Brexit, or for that matter a ‘red, white and blue’ brexit. What we do know, is that our relationship with the rest of Europe is going to change.

But what about the Eurovision Song Contest, is it time to pull out of that to? It’s not like we’ve set the completion ablaze recently. We used to do so well, but we’ve been slipping down the scoreboard for years now, coming last, or thereabouts, more often than not. so why is this?

We sent Simon Woolcott to investigate.

[CLIP]

IN: Ahh, Eurovision. The wheels are already in motion . . .

OUT: . . . on BBC 2 on the 27th of January

DUR: 9’40”

BACK: Simon Woolcott investigating our chances of future victory in the Eurovision Song Contest

I set out to interview contributors who have knowledge of the Eurovision song contest from different perspectives. I send out requests for interviews to nine potential candidates and seven replied.

I was fairly confident in securing a face to face interview with a representative of the UK branch of the official fan club, the OGAE. I was also fairly confident about securing an interview with a super-fan. I was right to be confident and recorded these interviews at their respective residences.

Unfortunately writer and  journalist John Kennedy O’Connor, who was my potential main contributor, was out of the country, in Nicaragua to be precise. Eventually he found himself in a hotel with sufficient wifi for us to conduct a Skype interview. Sadly the wifi was only available in the hotel lobby. It wasn’t the greatest connection, and the other guests and hotel staff were quite noisy, but the quality of what he had to say was perfect for the programme.

I had a previous entrant in mind, who I had thought about approaching to interview. I had worked with her may years ago. However, before I could contact her I received a yes from the manager of the last UK winner, Katrina Leskanich. Unfortunately my attempts to make this a face-to-face interview were thwarted. As were my attempts to conduct the interview via Skype or FaceTime. It had to be a telephone interview. I was disappointed but I couldn’t not have her as a contributor. In the end the quality of the recording was surprisingly good.

My other main contributor was Tony Power, a songwriter who had attempted to write a song to represent the UK on and off for some twenty years. I was able to record this interview face to face by travelling to the recording studios he often uses. The owners were kind enough to let us use one of the studios in between recording sessions.

After I had gathered all the material I needed and the deadline was fast approaching I was contacted by another potential contributor who was willing to take part, but sadly my deadline was looming before she was available. Nevertheless I have made a contact which may be useful for future projects.