We always knew when the Eurovision song contest was on, even when we couldn’t stay up to watch it. We knew when Cliff Richard won it, singing Congratulations. We found out as soon as we got up on the Sunday morning. It was the same when Dana won with All Kinds of Everything. I stayed up long enough to see Clodagh Rogers singing Jack in the Box. She was wearing hot pants. My Mum was saying “Isn’t that dreadful?” I wasn’t sure if it was the song or what she was wearing that was so dreadful. She didn’t win. We watched The New Seekers the following year. They sang their song too fast, even I could tell that. They sang it much faster than the record, and they didn’t win either.

The next year was the first time I watched all the way to the end. It took so long for all the votes to come in. Jim was away. We’d had our dinner long before the programme started and while we were watching it we had tea and banana sandwiches. I thought that Cliff Richard would win again, singing Power to All Our Friends, but he didn’t.

From “1000 Memories”, available as a Kindle book here (UK) or here (US).