HOW has it happened that the country that gave birth to The Beatles, Elton John and a host of other songwriting legends is now entering a copy cat version of a Ukrainian tune in The Eurovision Song Contest this year?

'Making Your Mind Up' (BBC1, Saturday) gave voting viewers very little choice in terms of selecting something worthy of our musical heritage. When you consider that one of the entries was a piece of instantly forgettable trash performed by 'glamour' model Jordan, dressed in a cat suit that could have been made from the same material as pink rubber washing up gloves, you can see that quality and good taste were low on the list of criteria here.

Mr Eurovision himself, Terry Wogan, and the ubiquitous Natasha Kaplinsky presided over this debacle, aided and abetted by a panel that included Jonathan Ross, Sonia from 'EastEnders', Bruno from 'Strictly Come Dancing' and someone called Paddy, whom I had never seen or heard of before.

Apart from Jordan, using her real name of Katie Price, the combined 'talents' of 'Pop Stars: The Rivals' reject Javine, former Eurovision loser Gina G, serial talent competition loser Andy Scott-Lee and classical pop trio Tricolore (henceforth to be known as G3) completed the line-up.

The eventual winner was Javine, who gyrated around the stage in the flimsiest of dresses, while singing an offering completely in the style of the winning Ukrainian entry in last year's contest. The similarities were made even more obvious by the fact that last year's winner Ruslana performed her successful song shortly before Javine took to the stage to sing 'Touch My Fire'.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but why is the UK copying the Ukraine? Surely we should have enough songwriters with original ideas to avoid this happening?

Over at the Fame Academy, the contestants in the Comic Relief version of the programme were starting to take things much more seriously by Sunday evening. You could almost see the realisation dawning on their faces that they might be in with a chance of winning - despite all the protestations indicating otherwise!

EastEnders' Sam Mitchell (Kim) was proving that she can do something right, while Frankie Baldwin (Debra) was keeping Corrie in the hunt in the battle of the soap songbirds. Actress Dawn was also consistent in holding a tune, which was more than could be said for poor Gina, who probably gave a sigh of relief when she was voted out of the academy on Sunday night.

For some reason, the judging panel's Mr Grumpy (Richard Park) decided to champion the cause of DJ Edith Bowman, although I thought she performed like a surly teenager who didn't know how to smile.

Comedian Ade Edmondson was marginally more entertaining than his annoying other half, Jennifer Saunders, but presenter Nick Knowles is probably in need of a reality check (Humility SOS!) if he thinks his musical talent is anything to write home about. By Sunday DJ Reggie was hanging on by a thread, just like his voice!

It's all good harmless fun in aid of charity, but I hope Ade doesn't win. I couldn't bear to watch Jennifer Saunders giving another condescending interview to the presenters in the aftermath.

SOAP POSER:

JUST how hard would you have to hit someone with a wrench to kill them with one blow? If Corrie's Katy can swing her arm with that strength, we should get her some tennis training immediately and set her loose on the women's game at Wimbledon this year!