Eurovision 2014 - 06/08/10 May 2014

Much as I love Eurovision - we aren't going to see the semifinals on BBC One any time soon. (Just as they aren't always broadcast on the main channels in other Big Five countries where they are less important as they have no jeopardy for us. ISTR that France Television shunts them off to a minor channel, they were on a different channel in Germany - where they had a strange split between two broadcasters for a few years - and Spain showed at least one of them delayed one year)

I think you've missed the point. The licensing and technical costs to the BBC of showing the Eurovision semifinals is minor in comparison to the cost of making an original show. AIUI we get the semifinals as part of the deal whether we show them or not - so the cost for 4 hours of entertainment coverage is marginal.

Oh I totally misread that, I thought he was suggesting we have a number of cheap selection shows for our entrant. Sorry Inspector!

Yes and even Ireland who take part in the semis air it on their secondary terrestrial channel.

Like I said, 2011 was such an awful production all round that I've switched to watching RTE online for the semis ever since. The drop in picture/sound quality is enough to justify not having to sit through the awful BBC3 production and the pointless (and money-wasting) pre-emptions of the interval acts etc.

No it wasn't. Scott continually spoke over the hosts during their English segments. I've nothing against British commentators speaking over the French sections, but both Wogan and Mills were/are guilty of not shutting the hell up when the hosts are speaking in English. The only exception, which at least Norton apologises for, is to flag up the weird opt-out of the text vote we continue to have in the UK.

Both Wogan and Mills did/do commentate over the actual songs themselves. Again, a big no-no.

I've got a lot of respect for Graham Norton because he knows when not to speak and let the EBU feed do the talking. My view is - during the French sections it's fine, but English sections should not be talked over.

They don't speak over the entire songs do they? They may speak over the intros and outros, which in my case is slightly OK.

They don't, but I think it's very disrespectful to speak over either the intro or outro. It is a song contest after all- and people want to hear the whole song. Wogan was especially guilty over his final few years.

Yeah I take a particular dislike to them talking over the intro and outro, I wish at times that a red button stream could be available without any commentary and perhaps and put a filler in when it goes to a commercial break...

The EBU feed has material which runs through commercial breaks, although in the semi finals the BBC usually choose to opt out of this.

I'd like to see Ken Bruce as a red button option, in the way you can listen to Five Live for sports commentary

Do you like the idea enough to actually press the red button and find out that is exactly what happens?