Wogan apologises for Eurovision mix-up

Television presenter Terry Wogan has apologised for accidentally announcing the wrong winner during a televised contest to select the UK Eurovision entry.

There was confusion at the end of the 'Making Your Mind Up' show when Wogan and fellow presenter Fearne Cotton simultaneously announced different winners.

Cotton then quickly confirmed that Scooch would be representing the UK at this year's Eurovision and not Cyndi, as Wogan had said.

Speaking on his radio show the next morning, Wogan said: "I suppose I should make a little apology to Cyndi - although I'm not taking the blame for this - because I was the one who did say Cyndi had won."

"And if she's listening, my apologies for raising your hopes at the last minute, which was inadvertent and I'm sorry."

"I shall be cheering them on in Helsinki. Scooch were the clear winners. Just ignore what you hear old fools say," Wogan said.

BBC director-general Mark Thompson said after the mix-up: "I think they were trying so hard to get the phones right that something else must have gone wrong."

"I'll find out tomorrow morning exactly what, but whoever's fault it was I'm sure it wasn't Terry Wogan's."

A BBC spokesperson later confirmed: "Terry was given the right name down his earpiece. There was no technical problem. It was noisy in the studio so he could have misheard, I don't really know, but he was definitely given the right name."