Eurovision Secrets & Scandals

One day in the life of television is a documentary that was broadcast on ITV on 1 November 1989. Filmed by over fifty crews exactly one year earlier, it was a huge behind-the-scenes look at a wide range of activities involved in the production, reception and marketing of British television. The project was organised by the British Film Institute and produced and directed for television by Peter Kosminsky. A book by Sean Day-Lewis was published to accompany the documentary. It contained the thoughts of people throughout Britain, including industry professionals, who recorded their feelings and experiences of television viewing on 1 November 1988, the day that the documentary was filmed.

For many, the Eurovision Song Contest is the chance for a Pan-European party. But it is also highly political, especially for countries in Eastern Europe. When Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra won in 2022, it was a message of European solidarity against Russian aggression.

Nemo looks back at his career and journey so far and then takes us along for the ride all the way to the Eurovision Song Contest.

American television programming dominates around the world at the expense of regional cultural voices.

Documentary about the first five decades of the Eurovision Song Contest

A documentary on the Z Channel, one of the first pay cable stations in the US, and its programming chief, Jerry Harvey. Debuting in 1974, the LA-based channel's eclectic slate of movies became a prime example of the untapped power of cable television.

New girl band Precious are representing the UK in next Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest. This programme follows the five girls' rise to fame, from their first appearance on Top of the Pops to the point where they learnt that they will represent the country with Say It Again.

Earlier this year Andrew Lloyd Webber was a man with a mission - to put the UK back on the Eurovision map. On the BBC's Your Country Needs You he set out to find this year's Eurovision act and wrote the song, It's My Time, with the award-winning Diane Warren. The public chose Jade Ewen, and Eurovision: Jade's Story follows her from the moment she won through to her final preparations and her first rehearsals in the vast Olympiyski Stadium in Moscow.

Love it or hate it, the Eurovision Song Contest has not only redefined Europe, it has redefined music. Conceived in 1956 as a great televised musical event which would bring peace and harmony to Europe, it has since launched meteoric careers and made hits of songs such as Waterloo, Volare and Boom Bang a Bang. It has also bred an annual hotbed of political intrigue, racial rivalry, allegations of bribery and plain old sour grapes. In this programme Abba, Sandie Shaw, Cliff Richard and many others sing while Katie Boyle, Bucks Fizz, John Peel, Michael Ball and Johnny Logan try to explain that special Eurovision "ring-a-ding-ding".

Les 60 ans de la télévision régionale

Celebration of the 15th anniversary of Lena's win in the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Satellite.

An investigation of how Hollywood's fabled stories have deeply influenced how Americans feel about transgender people, and how transgender people have been taught to feel about themselves.

Using testimonies by pioneers and witnesses of the times, delve into the feverish visual culture the media generated – with far-fetched examples of canine television games, seduction manuals, aerobics class while holding a baby, among others.

Amicalement vôtre : Hollywood au service de sa Majesté

TV special revisiting the documentary series that became a media sensation 50 years ago and birthed a new television genre. Examines the enduring significance of the series, which chronicled seven months in the lives of the Loud family of Santa Barbara, California.

Even though her program was only seen in four Midwestern cities, Ruth Lyons presided over America's highest-rated daytime TV talk show for nearly two decades! This documentary draws upon rare and previously undiscovered footage, along with comments from associates and admirers to create a portrait of an outspoken, multi-talented woman who became one of the most beloved and influential figures in TV history. Featuring the Recollections Of: Carol Channing, John Davidson, Phyllis Diller, Phil Donahue, David Letterman, Johnny Mathis, Peter Nero, Bonnie Lou, Nick Clooney, Oscar Robertson and many others, along with archival audio and video of Ruth Lyons' 50-50 Club.

A romp through an iconic decade of the Eurovision Song Contest, featuring classic archive performances from Abba, Brotherhood of Man, Dana, Cliff Richard, alongside more notorious offerings.

A 2008 documentary and debut feature film of Bafta-Award nominated director Jamie Jay Johnson. It follows the lives of the participants of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007, specifically the entrants from Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Georgia. The film sees them proceed from the national finals that saw them crowned the representatives of their country through to the international song festival itself held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands where they each compete against 16 other acts.

Restoring the World at War

A documentary project that shows viewers behind the scenes of this cultural exchange and explores the current processes of integrating Ukrainian culture into the European context. The heroes of the project are the participants and visitors of the festival, who demonstrate with their own stories the unique connection and cultural integration of Ukraine into the plane of Liverpool, one of the cultural capitals of Europe. In particular, Sarah Fisher, director of Liverpool's Open eye gallery, Yuliia Kurinna, a volunteer and displaced person from Nova Kakhovka, and actor and director Yurii Radionov will share their thoughts.