The SHOW must go on!

Graham Norton presides over a very different Eurovision…

- STEVEN PERKINS

NEW ENTERTAINMENT

Eurovision: Come Together

Saturday, BBC1 HD, 6.25pm

With international travel and a large public gathering at the very heart of the Eurovision Song Contest, it was inevitable that this year’s show would be heavily affected by the coronavirus lockdown.

That’s why the contest as we know it will not be going ahead this year – unfortunately for the UK’s entrant James Newman, as well as the 40 other contestants from across the continent who were preparing to perform in Rotterdam.

But of course, it wouldn’t be May without Eurovision in some form, and there are a host of programmes to fill the gap (see panel, below).

BBC1 will be airing Eurovision: Come Together, presented by Graham Norton, where a panel of superfans, including Ken Bruce and Mel Giedroyc, will draw up a shortlist of iconic Eurovision moments and invite UK viewers to vote for their favourite.

Here, Norton, 57, reveals what we can expect from this year’s alternative Eurovision…

What can you tell us about Eurovision: Come Together? Will it be live? Well, we are going to make Come Together as live as possible so it will still feel like event TV. It’s a big celebration of Eurovision, where the UK viewers can for the first time ever vote for their favourite song of all time – that’s not been done before, so that’s pretty exciting. I really hope people get involved. There’s also going to be some audience interaction, which will involve videos from the UK’s biggest Eurovision fans.