Now, needless to say, I didn't watch the Making Your Mind Up pre-Eurovision show on Saturday, because the vomit-inducing Fearne Cotton was co-presenting and, as wonderful as Terry Wogan may be, he's not wonderful enough to compensate for that horror. The same phenomenon meant I had to keep a wide berth of the Comic Relief show (no, not even Jonathan Ross can compensate for the Cotton effect), though to my delight I discovered on Saturday morning that in this YouTube age of ours it is possible to check out all the funny bits from the Comic Relief telethon without having to put up with all those embarrassing segments featuring minor BBC celebs and all the tediously worthy bits trying to guilt cash out of you. And, of course, the talent vacuum that is Fearne Cotton (am I taking the Cotton bashing too far? Possibly).
Do check out the latest Peter Kay Comic Relief music video (featuring Matt Lucas and The Proclaimers), which you really ought to buy from iTunes or 7Digital it being in aid of the charity, but which is on YouTube for free at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEMYYNLbEtw. As is the Catherine Tait/Tony Blair sketch which, its hurts me to the bone to say, is actually very funny. I take heart that it demonstrates what a good actor Blair is, which proves once and for all that everything he's ever said or done is exactly that, an act (is the CMU Daily the right place for Blair bashing? Hmmm, I ought to check, though the 'Brackets Consideration Committee' have just got back to me and said it is impossible to take Cotton bashing too far, so that's good to know). Anyway, this was going to be a Eurovision story, but somehow I've got a bit sidetracked, but not to worry, I'll get back to the point right now (except to say the BCC have just confirmed the CMU Daily is a damn good place for Blair bashing, so that's that sorted also).
Anyway, Eurovision. Well, the band who will be representing this United Kingdom of ours in this year's big Song Contest bash in Helsinki will be pop band Scooch, the originally Stock/Aiken created combo that were originally meant to be competitors to Steps, the group created by Mike Stock and Matt Aiken's former partner-in-crime Pete Waterman, who were at their height at the time. Despite some early success Scooch never got anywhere near matching their rivals and quickly disappeared into rumours and obscurity. They've been playing occasional gigs together since 2004 though, especially at gay club nights, before being picked by the Beeb as hopefuls for this year's Eurovision.
There was some confusion regarding Scooch's victory after the viewer phone vote had been completed on Saturday night because presenters Wogan and Cotton announced different winners at the show's finale. To be fair to Cotton (because we are capable of being fair to Cotton, when we really have to) she read out the right winning artist - Scooch - while El Tel pronounced solo singer Cyndi Almouzni as the winner. Cyndi, it turned out, was in second place. A spokesman for the BBC later apologised for the error, saying: "This is live TV and unfortunately sometimes these things do happen". All of which means Scooch will be singing 'Flying The Flag (For You)' at the Helsinki contest on 12 May. I wouldn't be getting your hopes up too high for a win, though.