Weaver's Week 2025-12-21

Last week | Weaver's Week Index | The Week of the Year 2025

A question to which we might know the answer: what's Paris like at this time of year?

For the fourth time in six competitions, France Télévisions has proven to be the masters of Junior Eurovision.

"Ce monde" was the winning song, performed by Lou Deleuze. It was written by Linh, Jonathan Thyssens, and John Claes. The singer stands on their own, on a tiny pedestal, with smoke around them. From the very start, this is coded as French: the singer wears a beret, strappy dress, boots. Lou sings a meaningful chanson about life, and how this world is not as good as it ought to be.

The first verse adds to the emotional heft: it's all filmed in black-and-white, emphasising the desolation and loneliness of the song. Colour arrives during the first chorus: the picture resolves to a red outfit, with gold around the winner. Er, around the performer. Our immediate remark: "Dammit, France Télévisions, you've done it again; if this doesn't win, it's going to be almost all the way up there." It was a winner.

This was a confident and assured performance, reminded us a lot of "Voila" from the senior competition a few years back. Amply rewarded by the juries, who gave it a 31-point margin. The public vote ratified this as the winner, "Ce monde" came second with the clickers. It's very much one to appreciate, a fine wine, and perhaps FT's best Junior song since the epoch-making "Bim bam toi" in 2019.

Second place went to "Motanka", performed by Sofia Neserien, representing UA:PBC (shown on screen as "Ukraine") A child plays with a doll, then pops up on the stage. Very stark costumes: white dress with red straps. Four backing dancers, black with red highlights; same colours on the pulsing backdrop.

Oh, it's Sofia singing for us, and appearing on the screen! Clever. Very clever. Uptempo, which is very much unlike the bulk of this year's contest. The song is an ethnic banger, it hits many of the emotional notes of "Shum" without quite hitting the artistic brilliance. Somewhat buried by the juries, "Motanka" was the televote winner, two points ahead of "Ce monde".

The hosts came third. "Shine like a star", Anita Abgariani, GPB ("Georgia") This benefitted from huge support in the hall, of course. Anita was joined on stage by two backing dancers who also played the drum, while another pair dance. Second place with the juries, mid-table with the home voters.

While we appreciated the effort and artistic impression, the song left us nonplussed. It felt like a cookie-cutter modern-era JESC song, pushes all the emotional buttons, sung to within an inch of its life. There's a vague nod to the ethnic heritage of its broadcaster, and we appreciate the universal language of Poplish, but for all that the performance felt a bit vapid. It would have been an acceptable winner, and that isn't good enough on a night when there are many more inspired songs.

For instance, fourth place for "Brave heart", Albert, AMPTV ("Armenia") Love the stagecraft for the opening moments, shot in black-and-white except for the yellow scarf around his neck. Albert's wearing white, stands in a field of star-shaped flowers, in the middle of stage smoke. Has a similar string lift to "Carol of the bells". It's a slow and sensitive song, conveys a barrel full of emotion even if you don't speak a word of Armenian.

This was the first song of the night that felt like it could win, and about the ninth successive entry from AMPTV at Senior or Junior that we've absolutely loved. Third with the juries, picked up an absolutely standard 58 points from the televote.

Fifth place for "Erase una vez", Gonzalo Pinillos, TVE ("Spain"). Lad in a leather jacket at a piano. Two chums are busily reading their books, then set them aside to dance. The stage design was the best of the night: backdrop in bookends, and at one point a giant book wheel appears.

Ambitiously, they also added live video effects, including one where a magic swirl appears around the performer. Perhaps a bit too ambitious: they quickly cut back from what felt like a tech glitch with flying books overtaking the main picture. This song sounded like the finale of a great musical set in a library with cats and a magical librarian: would someone please write that musical. A distant fourth with the juries, buried a bit in the televote.

Sixth: "Fruta perime", Kroni Pula, RTSH ("Albania"). This was a throwback to the first era of JESC, songs about stuff that kids like. In this case: fruit. Lots of fruit. Kroni is in a cute white outfit, her backing dancers also in white. The chorus is the biggest earworm of the evening, it'll go into your head and will not leave until evicted by a baby shark. Performance was rather shouty, which might have depressed the jury vote. It was very colourful, left a smile on the face, and was the last song we saw, which explained fourth in the televote.

Seventh: "Miracle", Nela Mancheska, MKRTV ("North Macedonia"). Minor key ballad, hello. Girl in wispy demure white dress launching a little star into orbit around the stage, hello. More strong singing in the chorus. If we're being very picky, we note that the song doesn't progress much after the first verse, but the backdrop does tell the story, and it's good enough to hear twice. Loved by the juries, halfway in the televote.

Eighth: "Brightest light", Marianna Klos, TVP ("Poland"). Opens with a close-up of glitter makeup coming out of the singer's eye. It's the annual song performed by the fairy on top of the toilet roll, young and blonde and delicate. Her dress gets light and patterns projected onto it. Camera angles do their best to hide the backing mermaids crouching round the circular stage until they're called after the first chorus. Told with vocal power, strength, and dexterity. This could go very far, and looking back it's a slight surprise that it didn't - below halfway in the juries, halfway down the televote marks. Turns out that she fluffed the big note in the jury finals, and that cost some points.

"Beyond the stars", Martina Crv, SMRTV ("San Marino"). The opening shot is of Taylor Swift's daughter sitting on the horn of a moon covered in tin foil; she wears a cowboy hat, has a guitar round her shoulder. Then she gets up and sings, and spins on the spot. Silver boots! Another song that doesn't extend beyond the first half, but the presentation is strong enough to keep our interest throughout.

This really resonated with the viewers: a smattering of jury points, and third place (third place!) amongst the public. All of this combined to put SMRTV on the left-hand side of the scoreboard; after almost two decades of trying and failing and trying and failing, "San Marino" achieves its serene destiny and reaches the big leagues.

"Miau miau", Yagmur, Íctimai ("Azerbaijan"). Yag and her three backing dancers are dressed in black jumpsuits, in an alley with rubbish bins and skips. Display has graffiti and flashing neon lights. Lighting is wonderful, atmospheric and dark and as threatening as JESC will accept. The song is fine, the staging is absurdly good and quite the best of the night.

"Ruin", Lottie O'Driscoll Murray, TG4 ("Ireland"). One singer, alone on the stage, pictures of mountains on the backdrop. Song is pretty but insubstantial. Lottie sings very well indeed, she'll be a name to watch in the future, but this is nowhere near a winning performance, and on a night full of potential winners it finished bottom of the pile again.

"I tuzna i srecna prica", Asja Dzogovic, RTCG (Montenegro) Sketches of a house and some people on the floor, black-and-white lighting rises to red. Backdrop: cartoons of people, mostly a sad-looking young person in a red shirt; all in red and white and black. Singer has a matching dress. Clear what this is about, and tells its story even if you don't speak the language. Doesn't have a full resolution, so we want to hear it again. Thought this would do brilliantly with the juries, it got 10 points.

"Para onde vai o amor?", Inés Gonçales, TVP (Portugal) Saudade in a cave; Inés is literally in a sea cave, carved out of rock and lit in blue-green. Sings a sad girl song. Then stands up, the sunlight floods in, and the set is exposed. Turns out to be a song about the things we've lost, innocence and friendships and all that, blowing away in the breeze like the plastic sheeting backdrop. This is the whole package: great song, meaningful staging, performed very well, could have heard a lot more of that.

Opening act is the inevitable burst of Georgian culture: fireflies and shepherd boys, all a bit mystical and magical. Magic proved to be the theme of this competition.

The stage is a small circle, with wings heading off to the sides. A grand staircase at the back, between the two giant video screens. The round part of the stage looks like a drum. Green Room is four seating areas immediately in front of the stage, so very quick transfers, and separated from the rest of the crowd. Also means that camera angles are perfect: if we see a shot with hands clapping and the performer obscured, it is an artistic choice.

David Aladasvili and Liza Tsiklauri were the presenters, didn't do anything remarkably good, didn't do anything at all bad. We'll have them host again, good safe pairs of hands. Postcards were a repeat of the idea from when GPB produced the show late last decade: pop on the VR headset of news! Our competitors put on the goggles, and see youngsters from Georgia doing young people things.

Interval act: the kids from "Bzzz" perform a new song. This'll be eligible for Senior Eurovision, right? Candy reprise their winning song from 2011; the youngsters are now in their mid-20s.

Common song: "Shine together", which was as toe-curling and meh as any common song. There was a stilted interview with last year's winning performer, perhaps might have benefitted from being a pre-record.

Before the voting, one of the hosts said, "If the juries did not vote for your song, it doesn't mean they didn't like you". Yes it does, they didn't like you as much as ten other tunes. Jury points are given in the traditional way, none of that "all the 1s, all the 2s" nonsense from last year.

Indeed, the whole show felt like a return to JESC's solid foundations: many of the experimental ideas TVE tried last year were quietly rolled back. This was a competent and safe programme, perhaps a little safe and unadventurous, but maybe competent and safe is exactly what the Eurovision contests need right now. And with the contest going to France Télévisions next year, we should get competent and safe and stylish.

Quickly through the quarter-finals. Top seed Jase Cullen overpowered Shemina Kirby. Then Brett Davids put in a 14-max performance when he beat Mark Allen, missing only one numbers game. Ben Hocking beat Ricky Cohen with a solid performance. John Payne overcame two disallowed words to beat fourth seed Ciaran McCarthy, thanks to better numbers.

Jase Cullen won the first semi-final, having the best of John Payne in three of the first five rounds. Winning words OPAQUER and EGOSURF played to his strength. Although John was thought to be better at the numbers rounds, it was Jase who emerged ahead in a very difficult one-large round. Jase solved the conundrum to make the final score 116-78.

"An all-time classic" said Colin Murray during the second semi-final. Brett Davids beat Ben Hocking by 116-108, a very rare double century match. Ben had the first winning word, FAINTEST, only to lose his lead with the incorrect offer of "underlap". Both players spotted the niner OPERATING, but only Brett went on to add the well-known type of goldfish LIONHEADS. That's the game, right? Wrong. Ben pulled off a magnificent six-small solve to take the game to a crucial conundrum, though actually unscrambling it proved a miracle too far.

Brett and Jase were level on the letters throughout the final. Every word was valid, every word equalled the opponent. The difference came in the numbers: Jase answered three-large on three occasions, Brett was just a little further away on each round. Jase solved the conundrum, so Jase Cullen won the final, 118-76.

The whole series was played in a gentle, friendly spirit. Countdown is a parlour game, a mental workout amongst friends, and nothing to be taken too seriously. Colin, Susie, and Rachel keep the show on the rails, they're lovely people to invite in each afternoon, and they know to entertain. That's how Countdown has lasted over forty years, and can easily keep going for even longer.

Best of the Web Alex McMillan enlivens many game shows with witty questions and cunning little conundrums. They've now written a great think piece, on why competition shows from around the world are so very different. It's a mixture of tone (light and fluffy, or complex and involved) and density (simple tasks, or very difficult ones). How come shows from this island tend to be light and simple? Find out at https://undeniablyalex.substack.com/p/alternate-realities

Reaching for the Skye You might recall the BBC's brief dalliance with Junior Eurovision earlier in the decade. Much was achieved, and Freya Skye won the televote in a way none of us expected. Since then, Freya's done some acting – spots on The Next Step and a lead in Disney's Zombies 4. Returning to the record studio, single "Silent treatment" is gently moving up pop radio playlists in North America. Catnip for the Tik Tok generation, and good for those of us who remember Paramore from their debut a few years back.

Gifted, the CBBC drama, caught our eye. It's a fantasy story, set in Edinburgh, and populated by youngsters with interesting and semi-magical powers. As such, we need to suspend disbelief quite a bit. We've no problem with people who can read minds, or never grow old, or talk to ghosts. Foretell the future, turn invisible, levitate objects, that's all grist to the mill.

And we were interested by the idea of Family Millionaire, the game show serving as a plot device in an early episode. Like erstwhile ITV shows Big Star's Little Star and What Would Your Kid Do?, the basic idea is for a parent and a child to agree on their answer. Like another erstwhile ITV show, the prize doubles at each question to a top prize of a million quid with the chance to walk away at any time; unlike any other show, losing contestants are rewarded with nothing more than a tea-towel.

Now, two points on this made-up show really tested how much we could suspend our disbelief. First, the child and their parent were both on set, and both wrote down their answers at the same time. Now, given the child contestant is in their teens, this is less of a problem than the infants on ITV shows, but it still feels a bit off, a bit wrong, and perhaps a large failure in the putative producers' duty of care.

But our disbelief came crashing down when the child on stage received a call on their mobile phone. These fictional producers allow contestants to take phones? On stage?? Ahem! Do the words "Major Fraud" mean nothing to you???

However, don't let that slight dose of unreality put you off. Gifted is an entertaining and slightly spooky and heartwarming yarn, made from a universe very similar – but not quite the same – as ours. Recommended for viewers at junior school and older. Find it on the BBC I-player.

The final line-up for the Senior Eurovision Song Contest shows 35 competing entries. From last year's contest, we lose VRT, RÚV, RTÉ, NOS/AVROTROS, RTVSLO, RTVE; all but the first have decided not to compete for geopolitical reasons. Returning broadcasters are RTBF, BNT, TVM, and TVR. Two other changes of note: ARD's entry will be selected by member broadcaster SWR, who replace NDR after about twenty years; and LRT have changed their name to be known as LSM.

This column will consider its position regarding the contest, and report back in due course.

The Finish Line has gone out in the 5.15 spot this week, the first new show to appear there since the depths of the pandemic. Ronan and Sarah‘s show is very much more enjoyable, and was suitably festivised: the chariots become sleighs, everyone wears awful jumpers, and some of the questions had a seasonal theme. Pointless has held down this spot in the schedules for almost fifteen years, it's in repeats more than it makes new episodes, and perhaps it's time for something new to take the spot.

A blanket finish on Mastermind this week, with just four points separating all the contestants. Unfortunately, it was a wet blanket, with almost as many errors as successes on the show. David Slater won the edition, Jefferson Airplane his specialist subject, but we have to report that his winning score of 15 points is the lowest score to win an episode in the BBC revival. Still, you've only got to beat the people in front of you, and David has earned his place in the last 24. Mastermind resumes in the new year, though they've still got some celebrity editions before deigning to show the last two heats.

Metrophiles booked their place in the Only Connect semi-finals, beating the Whitley Baes by 24-15. It was 4-0 after the opening round, which featured a lovely question about things Liverpool has two of. Much more even in Sequences, our fave was saying to do with card suits. Metrophiles were perfect on their wall, "shades of green" felt easier than "charismatic traits" at the start of a word. Victoria was convinced into giving the Baes a wall link not on the card, this had zero effect on the result.

Only Connect needs to finish before sport dominates BBC2 in February, and because the winners need to prepare for the World Cup in the summer. It continues through the festive break.

UCL progressed to the group phase of University Challenge, beating Lincoln by 190-85. Not a huge surprise, UCL are vastly experienced in this contest, Lincoln are making their series debut and looked dodgy on the buzzers in their heat. Buzzers proved to be the difference, UCL leaped into a hundred-point lead by half-way and never looked threatened. Well, other than by the host singing, which is something he really ought to leave to the experts (i.e. the teams on Only Connect).

UCL got 54% of the questions they faced, and 58% of their bonuses (down from 64% and 70% in the heat). Amongst the seven quarter-finalists we know, UCL are strongest on Geography, do well on Entertainment and Geography, but are bottom of the pack on Politics and Philosophy. Nevertheless, UCL are in the quarter-finals for the fourth year in a row; only the second side to achieve that feat after Manchester The Team Everyone Wants To Beat from 2005-10.

Churchill Cambridge play Merton Oxford when University Challenge returns on 5 January.

Your festive fortnight highlights!

Sun 21: Game of Wool has its final (C4), and The Chase has its annual out-takes show (ITV).
Mon 22: The Taskmaster championship of champions (C4), and a new run of The Unbelievable Truth (Radio 4).
Tue 23: Channel 5's got World's Strongest Man almost every evening, and throws in one of Sally Lindsay's Quiz Nights.
Wed 24: We know where we are with 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown (C4). Something new: I Don't Do... With Julian Clary (Radio 4).
Thu 25: Very pleasant scheduling from the main channels: BBC1 crams its highlights into the afternoon (Gladiators, The Weakest Link, Strictly Come Dancing, and The Wheel); then ITV offers Bullseye and The 1% Club. C4 has Bake Off with Peep Show stars.
Fri 26: All the regular irregulars are present and correct: Would I Lie to You? (BBC1), The Masked Singer (ITV), and The Big Fat Quiz of the Year (C4).

Sat 27: ITV has Wheel of Fortune, Limitless Win, and the last in the present series of You Bet!. Radio Ulster begins a full series of Sound Mate.
Sun 28: Quizzy Monday Sunday edition saves us from a day of repeats.
Mon 29: Masterchef Goes Large Champion of Champions.
Tue 30: We're scrabbling. DIY SOS Gladiators Special, or a documentary on Geoff Capes.
Wed 31: Only Connect (2) Third-Place Play-Off Play-Off, and we all retire to bed with a headache.
Thu 1 Jan: The Traitors. And The Traitors Prom. And ITV has Time Is Money. But mostly The Traitors.
Fri 2: Taskmaster New Year's Treat, anyone?
Sat 3: The Masked Singer, more Taskmaster, more Traitors.
Sun 4: more Masked Singer, ITV goes onto The Floor, and The Great Pottery Throw Down is back.

Bother's Bar will be running the Poll of the Year, and we might even have a website back soon. This column will return somewhere early in the new year with the Week's Review of 2025. Thank you for sticking with us through these troubled times, and may we wish you the very best of games.

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