John Drake

We don’t usually allow any kind of political stuff in here but this is worth making an exception for. But please, stick to commenting on the rugby league aspect of it only. Any other comments on Macron’s state visit belong in the politics sub forum. Thanks

Marvellous! What makes it even funnier is Alexei Sayle later appeared in two episodes of Doctor Who alongside that 'tedious jerk called Colin Blake' (Colin Baker, actually). A cracking story called Revelation of the Daleks, that somewhat sadly ended on an unresolved cliffhanger because the BBC (or more specifically Michael Grade) wanted to cancel the show altogether at that point. It's funny how history repeats itself, Alexei reckoning the show went down the toilet when Peter Davison was cast, and people still saying the same every time a new actor takes on the role.

I just commented on this in the Doctor Who thread.

Ncuti Gatwa was also at Glastonbury this year, introducing one of the acts (Jade). But in terms of Doctor Who/Glastonbury crossovers, will anything ever top this...

There is a place for political comments on TRL too, and it isn't in AOB. Everyone posting in here knows that. Stick to praising/slagging off the music in here folks. Political points belong in the political sub forum. Thanks.

I'm a bit late to the party as it has been out for a while but I've just started watching series 7 of Black Mirror on Netflix. First two episodes have been very good.

Someone got out of the wrong side of his glamping tent this morning, eh?

It's clearly run its course. Locked.

I had a ticket to see the last episode in the cinema but for various reasons I couldn't go, and ended up watching it on the TV. It was a bit frenetic. I was wondering how casual viewers might be keeping up with what was happening, as even I was finding it a bit hard to follow. I laughed out loud at the two Ranis line delivered by Anita Dobson, but was disappointed that the other Rani was despatched so quickly, along with Omega. Nice to see Jodie Whittaker again, that was a pleasant surprise. I felt sad at the end. I was hoping we might see a bit more of Ncuti Gatwa. His run as the Doctor has seemed a bit rushed and disjointed with the much shorter seasons and now its over already. If the show does continue in future, I'd be surprised if the next Doctor turned out to be Billie Piper. That ending felt more of a 'leave it open to see what turns up' sort of thing. With no production schedule in place to film another series, no actor is going to sign up to play a part in a show that may never get made. And there is so much online hate directed at this show now that it is a wonder anyone would want to involve themselves in it anyway.

Just binned off a load of off topic posturing that doesn't belong on a rugby league forum. Take it elsewhere, folks. If it kicks off again on here, you'll end up getting kicked off yourselves. Back on topic, please, if that's possible.

I’m not sure this really belongs in here. I’ll leave it, if anyone wants to respond to the survey, but I’m locking it to further discussion. If anyone wants to discuss this person, it belongs in the other place. Thanks.

It’s not exactly the kiss of death for musical careers either. The streaming figures for the individual songs are impressive. The Swedish entry Bara Bada Bastu has more than 50 million streams on Spotify alone so far. And it didn’t even win! Maybe streaming figures should play some sort of part in determining the winner in future? Dunno how, that’s for the EBU to work out, but the best way to know if a song is any good is if people enjoy listening to it.

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Discuss the games here. Please don't accuse match officials of deliberate bias or cheating, or your posts will be removed and your account may be banned without further warning. FRIDAY 23rd MAY Sheffield Eagles v Hunslet KO 19:30 SATURDAY 24th MAY Toulouse Olympique v Barrow Raiders KO 17:00 (UK time) SUNDAY 25th MAY Bradford Bulls v Widnes Vikings KO 15:00 Doncaster v London Broncos KO 15:00 Featherstone Rovers v Batley Bulldogs KO 15:00 Oldham v Halifax Panthers KO 15:00

Discuss the games here. Please don't accuse match officials of deliberate bias or cheating, or your posts will be removed and your account may be banned without further warning. SUNDAY 25th MAY Keighley Cougars v North Wales Crusaders KO 15:00 Midlands Hurricanes v Whitehaven KO 14:00 Rochdale Hornets v Newcastle Thunder KO 15:00 Workington Town v Goole Vikings KO 15:00

I don't think there is any obligation on the winners to host the following year. On quite a few occasions in the past it has been staged elsewhere. When Monaco won in 1971, it was hosted in Ediburgh the year after. And when Luxembourg won it two years on the trot in 1972 and 1973, they hosted in 1973 but not in 1974, when it ended up in Brighton. Also, somewhat ironically given the current anxiety over Israel, when they won it twice in 1978 and 1979, they hosted it in Jerusalem in 1979, but it went to the Netherlands in 1980. It's only in its recent history that the firm pattern of win it/host it has been established, so it could easily be broken again if one of the smaller nations didn't want to take it on, although Estonia and Latvia have already established it can be done (and Ireland once managed it three years on the bounce). As we saw in 2023, it is possible for another country to step in and host on behalf of another one if circumstances require it, when the UK hosted in Liverpool in a co-production with Ukraine. I doubt we'd ever see San Marino, Andorra or Monaco throwing their hats in the ring to host under any circumstances, and if Australia ever won it, it would present a whole new set of logistical and financial challenges for them to do it. But there are so many countries in Europe that take part every year that never get a look in, it would be great to see them have the opportunity, assuming they wanted it. Or even, for example, one of the Big Five that haven't hosted it for a long time, like France or Spain.

I think it would definitely make it more interesting to see ESC staged in places it hasn't been before, though it would remove one of the attractions of winning it if you weren't offered the opportunity to host the following year.

They'll never get rid of the voting, I know, it's just a utopian ideal on my part. I'd definitely still watch it, with or without the voting, but I appreciate that's not going to be the same for everyone. The voting should be a bit of fun - it was in our house, we all had our scorecards and filled them in, thus revealing the lack of consensus on what constituted a good song or performance - but for some, it seems to be much more than that now, unfortunately, and far beyond the old 'neighbours voting for neighbours' thing we've all huffed and puffed about through the years. The EBU are caught on the horns of a dilemma. I don't know how else they resolve it, without subjecting the whole event to an annual risk of disaster dependent on the outcome of who wins it.

Can we not go down this route in here, please, or anywhere else in the RL forums. Note for everyone: Stick to the point of the thread, and also re-read the T&Cs of this forum. Thanks for your co-operation.

I don't think it can or should be compared with sport. In most sports, there is a clear mechanism for participants to score more points than their opponents, whether it is goals in the back of a net, tries over the line, etc. How do you judge which is the best song? It's purely a matter of personal taste. I was in a room with four people watching on Saturday, and we all had different favorites, there was very little consensus, but we all enjoyed the show regardless. The Italian singer, Lucio Corsi, said before the show: 'If you like my song, vote for me, or vote for someone else, I don't mind. Music is not a competition.' Well said, that man. He had a great song, too. In my opinion. I agree with you that Eurovision should be fun, but the elephant in the room cannot be completely ignored. If a few juries had voted in a slightly different way on Saturday night, Eurovision would have been embroiled in a huge existential mess. And juries 'voting down' a song that they think might overperform in the televote, to try and prevent it winning, is just as bad. I don't want to watch that happen every year, and I don't want to see artists booed, no matter where they are from, either. There is widespread cynicism about the veracity of the voting processes. Whether there is any substance to it or not, it doesn't matter, it will fuel ongoing controversy and also detract from the success of the winner. If you can't trust the process, you can't trust the outcome. Who wants that? I've had to remove a few posts from this thread because they drifted into making overtly political points, which if I'd left them, would have generated even more of the same and it would have ended up being shunted into the politics forum. Who wants that either? It can't go on as it is. There are already rumblings from several broadcasters demanding changes. Instead of tinkering with the voting system, to try and make it more balanced, more transparent, more apolitical, etc, which I think is a hopeless cause from the get go because any voting system will be open to question and open to abuse, why not just move on from it altogether? Eurovision was created to bring countries together. It's motto is 'United by Music'. It does that fantastically well, until the voting starts! So, let's focus on the fun, the musicality, the variety, the difference, and celebrate that. Watching artists from past years returning to the stage was much more entertaining than sitting through an hour or more of voting. Let's have more of that every year instead. Put the music first, give these artists a global platform to perform on, without the risk of having their career chances blighted by receiving the dreaded 'zero points'. Eurovision these days is much more than a 3-4 hour show on one Saturday night. It goes on for months and the artists involved perform countless shows in front of packed, enthusiastic crowds all over Europe. I can't imagine for a second that would stop, if the voting (which everyone moans about anyway) was ditched. As I said in my previous post, if you must have a 'winner', let the artists themselves decide, or just let the live audience in the arena cast a vote on the night, which would make grabbing a ticket for that even more of an attraction than it already is.