There are references to the Eurovision Song Contest in numerous popular films, television series, radio series and stage plays. The modern logo was introduced for the 2004 Contest to create a consistent visual identity. ...

Film

• In the 1977 film Jubilee [1] a character is referred to as "England's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest" about 32 minutes in. This is ironic as constituent nations of the UK, unlike in football and other sports, do not have their own entries. This is arguably because it is technically EBU members, rather than countries themselves, competing. Therefore, as the BBC covers all of the United Kingdom, they have a United Kingdom entry.
• The 1981 Dutch film Ik ben Joep Meloen [2] features the main character accidentally entering (and winning) the Dutch national preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest. The film included an appearance by Marlous Fluitsma, the presenter of the Eurovision Song Contest 1980.
• In the 2000 film An Everlasting Piece after about 7 minutes a wig technician asks during customer/client smalltalk whether the client knows where the Eurovison Song Contest is being held that year.
• The 2000 Swedish film Livet är en schlager (Life is a Schlager) [3] is about a housewife that gets her life turned upside-down when she participates in 'Melodifestivalen', the Swedish qualifier for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Jubilee is a 1977 cult film directed by Derek Jarman and starring Jenny Runacre, Nell Campbell (Little Nell), Toyah Willcox, Adam Ant, Jordan (the Malcolm McLaren protege), Ian Charleson, Hermine Demoriane and Wayne County. ... The Eurovision Song Contest 1980 was the 25th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on April 19, 1980 in The Hague. ... An Everlasting Piece is a comedy film released in 2000. ... Schlager (German Schlager, literally something that hits or, more loosely translated, a hit) is a style of popular music that is prevalent in northern Europe, in particular Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Latvia and Lithuania, but also to a lesser extent in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. ...

Television

• A 1970 episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus included a sketch about the Europolice Song Contest. The competitors were police from various European nations. The parody included the announcement of scores in many languages and outrageous accents, including many non-European.
• In a 1975 episode Fleet Street Goodies, of the British comedy The Goodies, Bill Oddie enters the fictional Eurovision Raving Loony Contest.
• In an episode of The Young Ones, Alexei Sayle dressed as Benito Mussolini and performed a mock Contest entry called "Make Silly Noises".
• British comedy Maid Marian and her Merry Men (1989) included a Eurovision parody in their song contest 'a Song for Worksop.' Upon forming the idea for the song contest, Marian described in vivid detail the exact manner in which she would host the show, mirroring Eurovision hosts of the past, and the winning song was the Guy of Gisborne's idiotic composition 'Ding-a-Ling-a-Ling, Dong-a-Long-a-Long.'
• The 1994 BBC sitcom The High Life included an episode where the protagonists entered a song for Europe, later going on to achieve the glorious score of 'Nil Points' for their song 'Pif, Paf, Pof' where Sebastian goes on to bemoan the fact that that was, "worse than Lynsey De Paul and Mike Moran in 1977 with Rock Bottom and they were shite".
• The Eurovision Song Contest was the central focus of an episode of Father Ted. The joke was that the Irish had lost so much money by winning so many times they decide to choose the worst possible entry as their song entry. Father Ted and Dougal win with an entry called "My Lovely Horse".
• Steve Coogan portrayed a spoof singer Tony Ferrino, who was purported to have won the Eurovision Song Contest 1980 with the song "Papa Bendi", in several television specials in 1997 and 1998.
• The short-lived BBC comedy Heartburn Hotel featured an episode in which the delegation from the impoverished Eastern European state of Zagrovia, recovering from a recent civil war, stayed in the grotty Birmingham hotel run by Tim Healy's character whilst taking part in that year's Eurovision Song Contest. Although the country in question is, of course, fictitious, the Contest had indeed been held in Birmingham that year (1998), and the programme notably included some specially filmed footage of the Zagrovian "entry" - entitled "Lik, Lik, Lik" ("Love, Love, Love"), sung by Saskia - being performed on the actual ESC stage at the National Indoor Arena, complete with commentary by Terry Wogan. [4]
• In the 2004 documentary series Himalaya with Michael Palin, Palin compares a Tibetan music festival to the Eurovision Song Contest.
• At the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards, the British host Sacha Baron Cohen made a parody of Eastern European countries hosting the Contest. As the fictitious Kazakh TV personality Borat, Cohen opened the show by welcoming the viewers to The Eurovision Song Contest 2005. The award show also included other, more subtle, references to the ESC, like overly long folk-dance sequences (common in the interval act of the ESC), and a pointless appearance by the (still fake) Kazakh president.

1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... Monty Pythons Flying Circus (also known as Flying Circus, MPFC or just Monty Python during the fourth season) was a highly popular, surreal BBC sketch comedy show from Monty Python, and the groups initial claim to fame. ... Fleet Street Goodies is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies. ... The Goodies was a surreal British television comedy series of the 1970s and early 1980s combining sketches and situation comedy and starring Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie. ... Bill Oddie William Edgar (Bill) Oddie, OBE (born July 7, 1941 in Rochdale, Greater Manchester) is a comedy writer and performer, author, composer and musician. ... The Young Ones was an anarchic British sitcom which ran for two seasons in 1982 and 1984. ... Alexei David Sayle is an English comedian, actor and author. ... Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (July 29, 1883 – April 28, 1945) was the prime minister and dictator of Italy from 1922 until 1943, when he was overthrown from power. ... Maid Marian and her Merry Men was a UK childrens television series created and written by Tony Robinson and directed by David Bell. ... The High Life was a Scottish situation comedy written by and starring Forbes Masson as Steve McCracken and Alan Cumming as Sebastian Flight. ... Lynsey Rubin (born June 11, 1950 in London) is a songwriter and singer. ... Mike Moran is a keyboard musician. ... The Eurovision Song Contest 1977 was the twenty second Eurovision and was held on May 7, 1977 in London. ... Father Ted is a popular 1990s television situation comedy set around the lives of three priests on the fictional extremely remote Craggy Island off the west coast of Ireland. ... Dermot Morgan as Father Ted Father Ted Crilly is the central character in the British Channel 4 situation comedy series Father Ted played by the late Dermot Morgan. ... Ardal OHanlon as Father Dougal Father Dougal McGuire is a character in the comedy series Father Ted, played by the actor Ardal OHanlon. ... Steve Coogan (born 14 October 1965) is an English actor, impressionist, and comedian. ... Tony Ferrino is a fictional character created by Steve Coogan. ... The Eurovision Song Contest 1980 was the 25th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on April 19, 1980 in The Hague. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... Heartburn Hotel was a British sitcom which ran for one series on BBC Television in 1998. ... Tim Healy (January 29, 1952-) is a British actor best known for playing Dennis Patterson in the television series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. ... National Indoor Arena <General information> The National Indoor Arena in Birmingham was opened in 1991. ... Sir Terry Wogan Sir Michael Terence Wogan, KBE, (known as Terry Wogan) was born on August 3, 1938. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... DVD cover Himalaya with Michael Palin was a television series presented by comedian and travel presenter Michael Palin. ... This article is becoming very long. ... The MTV Europe Music Awards were established in 1994 by MTV Europe to celebrate the most popular music videos in Europe. ... Sacha Noam Baron Cohen [1] (born October 13, 1971) is an English comedian and actor notable for his successful and controversial comic characters, including Ali G (a junglist from West Staines, England), Borat (a Kazakh reporter) and Bruno (a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion reporter). ... The Kazakhs (also spelled Kazaks or Qazaqs), (in Kazakh: Қазақтар []; in Russian: Казахи; English term is the transliteration from Russian) are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia (largely Kazakhstan, but also found in parts of Russia and China). ... Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat Borat Sagdiyev (Cyrillic: Борат Сагдиев) is a fictional character of a Kazakh journalist invented and portrayed by the British comedian provocateur Sacha Baron Cohen for Da Ali G Show, an unstaged and unscripted show in which Borat interviews people who believe that he is a real Kazakh...

Radio

• In the pilot episode of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, panelists had to sing a popular song with lyrics replaced by "la la la" and only on one note, with the other team having to guess the song by rhythm only. After a particularly lengthy and monotonous "la la la" by Graeme Garden and Jo Kendall, Bill Oddie guessed the tune as "That was the German entry in the Eurovision Song Contest.... in 1967, 1964, 1962 and 1958."

Cover for, Im Sorry I Havent a Clue Collection 1 (Volumes 1-3). From left-to-right, Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer, Humphrey Lyttelton, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Willie Rushton. ... Graeme Garden, as a Beefeater in The Goodies (TV series) episode The Tower of London David Graeme Garden (born February 18, 1943) is a British comedy writer and performer. ... Jo Kendall is a British actress. ... Bill Oddie William Edgar (Bill) Oddie, OBE (born July 7, 1941 in Rochdale, Greater Manchester) is a comedy writer and performer, author, composer and musician. ... The modern logo was introduced for the 2004 Contest to create a consistent visual identity. ...

Stage

• Playwright Jonathan Harvey wrote a play called "Boom Bang-a-Bang" in 1995 which is set at a Eurovision Party (a social event which is popular with gay men).
• An Australian musical comedy-cum-tribute to the contest, Eurobeat: The Eurovision Musical, was launched in 2003 as a cabaret-style show in Melbourne. It has since gone on to do a national tour of Australia for the second half of 2006.