How I became disenchanted with Eurovison

Tonight sees the first semi final  for this year's Eurovison song contest held tonight, I will not see a single second of this year's event as I have done for the last 2 years. I started to watch the contest in the late 1980's when it was deemed uncool, this view seem to change in the period in the 1990's when Ireland won 4 out of 5 contest with Norway with an entry that was an extended violin solo that just happened to be played an Irish musician. Ireland won the contest for the last time to date in 1996 and the following year the UK won at a canter when Katrina and The Waves performed 'Love Shine a Light'. There are many reasons as to why I do not watch the Eurovison nowadays, first there is the blatant bloc voting of neighbours towards (Scandinavia, The ex Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavia) each other which provides (with the exception of Finland's Lordi who won in 2006 with 'Hard Rock Halluejah') the contest with winners of dubious quality, the voting process that now allows non qualifiers to vote thus making the bloc voting even worse plus needlessly over long and finally the bizarre decision to invite Australia to take part in the event. Below are some thing I would do if I was in charge of the contest

1. Regional qualifying - this would be done to get rid of the obvious bloc voting that has hindered the contest for the last decade.

2. Single non qualifiers panel - non qualifiers get a vote but they combined into one block again to diminishing the impact and shorten the voting process.

3. Goodbye Australia - to put this pure and simple the contest is supposed to be an European event.

2017 UK General Election latest 08/05/2017

The BBC have announced that they will be broadcasting a 7 way debate between reprensetives of the 7 main parties that contesting this year's election. This will be the closest that we will have to a leaders debate since Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn have both expressed their unease over such a format.

TV review: Britain Today Tonight

Starring Kayvan Novak

10pm Friday Channel 4

Britain Today Tonight is a piercing take on US cable news shows where the standard of journalism leaves much to be desired. Novak takes on many guises in particular host Digger Daley who shouts at cameramen even when on air. The show is made of reports by reporters (all played by Novak) who interact with unsuspecting members of the public one example being one that features a MI5 agent (again Novak) making enquires about text massages at a youth club that ends up with John (yes the comedian from Liverpool) Bishop being flagged up as a possible terrorist. Daley also holds interviews on certain subjects, one such on the gender pay gap has the female interviewee having to deal with a male porn (again Novak) star complain that his female co-stars get paid more than him! Britain Today Tonight goes to  the top of British TV comedy this year.

War is coming

Amongst an number of new drama productions that the BBC have announced is a new version of War of the Worlds, whereas previous screen versions have had contemporary settings this will have a Victorian era setting. The writer of the new production is Peter Harness whose credits includes an number of Doctor Who episodes and the 2015 screen version of the Susanna Clarke novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

The Duke stands down

Prince Philip will no longer be attending any public Royal functions. The Duke was known for his somewhat less than tactful remarks of which there too many to list. For one take of his reputation watch the Toast of London episode Vanity Project in which a fictional Arab tycoon makes the film Prince Philip: Scroundel Dog, no guesses on what the character's views are.

Royal discourse

Next Wednesday BBC2 will show King Charles III an adaptation of Mike Bartlett's stage play of the same name. It has already caused a bit of fuss in it's depiction of a time when Prince Charles finally ascends to the throne, one reason why it has Kate (Duchess of Cambridge) Middleton acting in a manner not too dissimilar to Lady MacBeth as she tries to get her husband onto the throne. This is not the first time the BBC has made a drama about a crisis enveloping a future monarch, To Play the King the sequel to the original House of Cards had the fictional Prime Minister Francis Urqhart clash with a King who had many similarities with Prince Charles. Apparently many actors turned down roles in the original stage fearing their chances of  a Knighthood or Damehood though Tim Piggott Smith who would take on the role of the King would go to receive an OBE. Sadly this will be the last screen performance of Tim Piggott Smith who died earlier this year.

Forgotten UK TV cop shows of the 1990's


Between the Lines

Like The Line of Duty this has the Police probing themselves. Featuring guest appearances by the likes of Pete Postlethwaite, Jerome Flynn and a pre Bond Daniel Craig


Yellowthread Street

A Police squad in Hong Kong face down the Triads. Starring Mark McGann, Bruce (the bad guy in Passenger 57) Payne, Robert (Agent Jones in The Matrix) Taylor and Tzi (recurring 24 antagonist Cheng) Ma.


Resnick

Before becoming one of Britain's most acclaimed character actors Tom Wilkinson played the title Police Defective in this short  lived series.