Watch Channel 4 UK Documentaries online: Episode 11 The Secret History Of Eurovision

A decade after the end of the Second World War, Marcel Besançon, a Swiss executive working for the European Broadcasting Union, had the idea to stage a live pan-European singing competition to promote the nascent television services of western Europe. The first Eurovision Song Contest took place in Lugano, Switzerland, on 24 May 1956. Although only seven countries participated - six of which, significantly, went on to sign the Treaty of Rome and lay the foundations of the European Community - it was an instant hit and has become an unbroken annual fixture in the life of the continent. But it came to mean even more than that. During the Cold War, the glitz and glamour on the Eurovision stage was seen as a symbol of western escapism and freedom, when only a very few in the Eastern bloc were able or brave enough to risk their lives by tuning in to Finnish TV signals in secret. This documentary tells the inside story of how the Eurovision Song Contest became the most popular live musical event on the planet, and how it helped to build a new Europe.

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