We Love Eurovision! Blue Peter

Linz, thank you so much!

It's not my birthday until November but I'll take the cake.

No, Barney, that's not for you!

We're celebrating one whole year of Fan of the Month!

Oh. Who's FOTM?

No, it's Fan of the...

SHE BLOWS PARTY HOOTER

Hello! And welcome to a very live Blue Peter.

We are excited to be here today,

and coming up on today's show, spring has sprung!

Our lovely resident gardener George is in the garden doing his thing,

and walking in slow-mo.

He walks in slow-mo everywhere he goes!

Also, speaking of spring, I give some mushrooms a spring clean

in the most famous music venue in the world, the Royal Albert Hall!

Also, Barns...

SHE BLOWS PARTY HOOTER

-What are you doing?

-We're celebrating one whole year

-of Fan of the Month!

-That's what that was?

MUSIC: Celebration by Kool & the Gang

It's a beautiful thing, everybody up off your sofas!

-Let's have a dance.

-The crew are loving it! No, stop it.

Dance at home, though. We're celebrating a whole year

of Fan of the Month, so we'll be looking back

at past winners and celebrating May's Fan of the Month too!

Will it be you? As well as that,

we are going to be playing Spot Shelley!

-Found her!

-No, this doesn't count!

If you spot her anywhere on today's show,

do get in touch and let us know!

The first person to get in touch wins a dance with Lindsey

-at the party.

-Yes, you do!

So, this weekend is the 62nd Eurovision Song Contest,

it's definitely something worth celebrating

with one of them blowy things.

But instead of doing that, a few weeks ago we got Lucie Jones

into the studio, who is our Eurovision hopeful, and she told us

how she feels about representing the UK. But before we see that,

let's have a look at the moment she won...

The winner of Eurovision You Decide is...

Lucie!

CHEERING

Lucie, how are you feeling?

I can't believe you picked me, thank you so much!

I think she's pleased!

Yay! Lucie Jones, what's it like watching that back?

Oh, weird, I don't like watching myself at all! I was so overwhelmed.

You've done well to pick a job in telly!

-You've got a Blue Peter badge on...

-Yes, I have!

-Congratulations!

It's not your first, though, is it?

No, I have one from an essay competition...

Which you actually won when you used to be a viewer when you watched

-way back when.

-Yes.

-Which is great news for you, isn't it?

-Definitely!

-Do you know why?

-Why?

-Because you've done something different

to be here today, and that means

you've earned your silver badge as well!

No way! Oh, my gosh!

This is genuinely the best thing ever!

-This is better than Eurovision!

-There you go.

But don't tell anyone...

It's all right, no-one's watching, you're fine!

We are talking about Eurovision of course,

so in just two days' time you will be on stage in Kiev,

-where they make the chicken with the garlic in it.

-Absolutely, tasty.

And you will be singing representing the UK... It's amazing, isn't it?

It's kind of terrifying, but really cool!

Whoever thought I'd be able to do that as a singer?

We all did, that's why we're excited to have you here.

-We're going to celebrate your triumph with a game.

-Oh, great!

Before you are some ex-contestants from Eurovision,

and on the back of these cards is a number.

That's how many points they scored in the competition.

All you've got to do is work out whether the next contestants

-scored higher or lower than the previous.

-OK.

-You up for this?

-I will give it a good go!

We've called this game, Eurovision: Is It Higher Or Lower?

We haven't. I'm just making that up.

First up, Joe and Jake, 2016, last year's entry, let's have a listen.

It's a beautiful song, They scored...

62 points.

So, what about Gina G? 1996.

OK, Gina G definitely scored more points than Joe and Jake.

-Do you reckon?

-Yeah.

-Just a little bit more?

That's the name of the song! OK, good, you think more.

-Higher.

-Higher.

-Higher than 62?

77! Pipe down, you two.

OK, so Bucks Fizz, 1981, Making Your Mind Up.

-You need to make yours up.

-I am going to go higher again.

-Higher than 77. Are you sure about that?

-No.

OK, let's have a look.

136 points!

-That is huge!

-Massive, isn't it?

-Yes.

OK, Lulu with the Boom Bang-a-bang song that she did.

1969, it's a while ago.

Lower. I will say lower. Sorry, Lulu.

-Than 136?

-Yes, that's a huge score.

-18 points.

-Oh, no!

But the points were quite different then.

And Scooch, 2007.

Flying the Flag, they were. What do you reckon, higher or lower?

# Flying the flag! # Higher.

You should be a singer. Higher than 18...

-Oh!

-Oh, Nelly!

-Only just!

-So close!

Let's go to Katrina and the Waves? Actually one of my favourite songs.

Yes, really good song, and they won, so I will say higher.

-Higher than 19.

-Yeah.

Shall we have a look? It's a great game.

227 points.

A round of applause for Lucie Jones, she knows her stuff!

-Well done!

-I'm surprised, actually, I did quite well!

Did very well. Not quite the 250 points you're going to get

in two days' time, is it?

-Fingers crossed!

-We're all rooting for you.

-Thank you so much.

-Thank you.

-A round of applause for Lucie Jones, everyone.

What a lej! APPLAUSE

-Linz!

-We love Lucie Jones. Good luck.

If you want even more Eurovision fun and games, head to the BP website

where you can challenge yourself and take our Eurovision song lyric quiz.

Do you know whether your bum has feelings,

your bum is a part of you?

It's true! Was that a real Eurovision song lyric?

The answers are on there.

As well as that, later in the show... Stop it, Barney,

-what are you going to do?

-Nothing, just watching.

We are going to be catching up with Mel Giedroyc and Scott Mills

to find out how it's all going in Kyiv.

I hate being left out all the time.

That reminds me, we must take a trip down memory lane and look

at our brand-new Design a Dragon Competition.

Have a look at the details...

This is the Great Pagoda,

it's one of the most iconic sights at the world-famous

Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew.

It's a grade-I listed building, which means it's thought to be

of exceptional interest and national importance,

so it needs to be protected.

So, a year-long restoration project is underway

to return this 255-year-old building to its former glory.

Once it was covered with 80 beautiful dragons,

and now the dragons are coming back!

A team of skilled designers and craftsmen will create 79 sculptures

that will once again sit on this iconic building.

But what about the 80th?

This is the really cool part of the whole project

because this is where you come in!

We're giving you the chance to design one of the dragons

that will sit on the Great Pagoda and be seen by millions of people!

That's right, your design will be part of an iconic royal building,

and it doesn't get much cooler than that!

Your design must be totally original.

You need to give your dragon a name and a superpower.

And it has to be a classic dragon shape,

including wings, a body, a tail and a mouth.

Judging your creations will be a bestselling author

and dragon expert...

Hi, I'm Cressida Cowell, author and illustrator

of the How To Train Your Dragon books.

I'm so happy to be a judge for this incredible competition.

All the details are on the Blue Peter website

so get designing your dragon now!

I love this competition!

It's so much fun.

If you want to get involved and design a dragon, all you've got do

is head to the Blue Peter website and download this application form.

It's got its own shot, it's that special.

The first bit is all your personal details,

name, age, address, all that kind of stuff, fairly straightforward.

The middle bit has six rules here

for when you are designing your Dragon. It talks you through it,

then here you write down how you've come up with the design.

Give us its name, tell us what's special about it, and of course,

tell us what superpower it has.

On the back, that's the section where you draw your dragon.

Make sure you send it to us, please. Thank you.

Speaking of sending it, your entries need to be with us

by Thursday 25th of May at 12 noon.

It's really important you use the correct postage.

For example, if you are using a large envelope like this one here,

A4, you will therefore need a large postage stamp.

Don't get it wrong, people, cos you might be disqualified

and your entries might not arrive on time.

Get designing. It's so cool, I want to enter! Good luck!

OK, now to the BP garden to meet a gardener called George

who apparently has green fingers!

-When I looked at his hands, they were perfectly normal.

-Stop it.

Spring has finally sprung here at Blue Peter HQ,

it's a beautiful, sunny day.

The bees are buzzing and the birds are singing.

The gorgeous leaves on the trees.

We've even got a big pile of mud!

Well, that's embarrassing...

Spring is here, so it's time to get out in the BP garden

and plant this year's fruit and veg, but who am I kidding?

I'm no expert, I need some help,

so who better than resident garden expert, George!

A green-fingered superhero,

this guy has forgotten more about gardening than I know.

Wow! Look at George with his super cool slow-mo walk!

I'm doing that.

Last year, George took charge of the Blue Peter garden

and made it awesome!

This year, it's my turn...

..sort of...

We should probably get on with it.

George, it's spring. I'm guessing they called it spring

because it's when things spring into action and I'm also guessing

it's a good time of year for the garden too?

Yes, when we're in spring time, it's perfect for planting

as it gets warmer with light showers of rain.

Our vegetable patch here is looking a little sorry for itself,

so I'm going to need your help to get some life into the old girl.

-Yes, I can see you need some help.

-You can say that again.

-Yes, I can see you need some help!

-Very good. Funny and clever,

you can stay. OK, where do we start?

First, we need a plan.

You heard the man, we need a plan.

When planting in the garden,

you need to have an idea of where you're going to put things.

This is why I have drawn this plan.

Whether your garden is big or small,

a map of where everything goes

helps make sure they're evenly spaced and in the right place.

So, the strawberries are going to go at the front of the garden

to catch the sun.

The gooseberry bush is going to go at the back of the garden

-for some shade.

-Brilliant, let's get planting!

-Whoa!

We need to check I've done this right.

Before you start digging any holes,

George recommends laying out your plants to get a feel

for how the garden will look once planted.

-About here?

-Left a bit... Right a bit...

-Whose right, yours or mine?

-Yours!

-Mine.

-No, yours!

-There.

-Just leave it at that, it doesn't matter.

-I'm good at this, aren't I?

OK, all sorted.

Now, can we start planting, please?

No, not yet, Barney. We've still got some more work to do.

Does it involve big sticks?

George's next tip is build a wigwam.

I have no idea what that is!

This is a special structure which allows climbing plants to grow up.

Some plants need to be guided on which way to grow.

A wigwam is the perfect solution.

OK, how do we build it?

We've got to get the sticks,

and try and wedge them as far in as possible.

Then if you tie that there.

-All right, there we go.

-What sort of knot is that?

That is a Barney knot.

I know what you're thinking - it's totally a thing!

Let's just go through what we've done here, George.

We have done a plan, spaced everything out in the garden,

then built this stick thing for the peas to grow up,

now can we start planting some stuff, please?

-What do you say?

-Pretty peas.

Go on then, but, please, no more pea jokes!

No more pea jokes, I promise. Easy-peasy.

That was funny. Go on, that was funny.

Finally, we get to put some stuff in the ground.

George, my man, take it away.

You get potatoes, I'll get the strawberries,

and we'll meet by the peas in ten.

It's a deal, see you in a bit.

Now is the time to plant your strawberries and potatoes,

which will make a lovely, tasty treat later in the year.

But not together, because that would be gross!

When planting strawberries, always make the hole bigger than

the actual plant itself

because you always fill it up with compost to help the plant grow.

OK, so I'm digging a trench for the potatoes. I'll draw it out

just like a big rectangle, then when I've dug all this out,

we can plant them!

You're just going to put it in, so that the soil level just goes

past the plant...

I'm starting to realise that we've got quite a lot

-of work to do here and not a lot of time to do it!

-Oh, yeah.

But I have had an idea.

Blue Peter film crew - cameras down, please, pick up a spade,

we need all the help we can get!

The whole team worked together to get the garden looking ship-shape,

even George's dad is helping out!

OK, operation potato cover-up...go!

Now, all that's left to do

is wait for them to grow so that we can eat them.

I tell you what, George, that was a good day's work.

Listen, we've planted everything,

-now it's kind of a waiting game, isn't it?

-It is.

Can we do anything to make them grow quicker?

Well, I did hear once that if you sing to your plants,

-they grow quicker.

-If you sing to them?

# One potato, two potato, three potato, four

# Five potato, six potato, seven potato more

# Eight potato, nine potato... #

I don't know why this song goes... George, it's not working, mate!

I was there five hours and nothing grew!

-You need to keep singing!

-Really?

In the meantime, let's have a look at this week's Big Badge Wall,

covered in all of your colour and creativeness!

Have a look at this, it's from Olivia.

She has well and truly earned a silver badge,

look at this island that she's made!

It's even in an elephant shape,

this must have taken so much time.

There's mermaids, palm trees, there's even a dolphin.

-It's very cool.

-Olivia, we think you're a genius, well done

-on getting your silver badge.

-Well done, you lej. Let's take a look

at Ruby's... It's a 3D model down here

of Radzi doing some free running, which you saw on last week's show.

Look at him there, doing his muscle-ups on the bar.

He's such a hunky, muscly man!

Look at his little legs!

Congratulations, you've got your very own Blue Peter badge!

Well done.

Barns, you're going to love this.

Elsie has made these, she's called them plushies,

and they're almost like little cushions of us!

Look, they're all squidgy with hair and everything. Elsie, we love them,

you've earned a badge! Well done.

Evie has made a massive thing for us this week. It's BP!

She's used some masking tape to mask out the letters,

and then thrown loads of paint at them and it's awesome.

You've also got a BP badge, congratulations.

If you want to get in touch and earn your very own Blue Peter badge,

send us all the stuff you know we love to receive from you

to the usual address, please. Don't forget that when you've got

your badge, that can get you into over 200 attractions

-across the UK...

-For free!

But please check the website first, if that's OK,

because sometimes the offers can change. Thanks.

Now, I think it's time to walk this way

and have a bit of a celebration, because today marks

the one year anniversary of... Cue the music!

SWING MUSIC PLAYS

It's a beautiful moment. Yes, it is...

You're killing me there! OK, you talk now.

BP Fan Club of the Month. Or BP Fan of the Month, that is,

which is what that stands for.

Fan of The Month.

It's awarded to people who are online, part of the BP Fan Club,

who go that extra little bit extra to impress us.

You can only be FOTM if you've got

a CBBC account and you're part of the BP Fan Club.

Do you have a CBBC account? Are you part of the BP Fan Club?

If you're not, why not? Go and get one. Go on.

Are you OK, Barns? Are you doing all right today?

We're excited because on BP Fan of the Month we've had

nearly 7,000 loves, which is amazing, over 230,000 comments

and over 21,000 of you out there are official BP Fan Club members.

So if you are a BP Fan of the Month,

you'll know how it feels to be a winner. Just take a look at this.

This is how we've revealed all of those legendary people.

Reveal it, Radz.

Yeah!

Purple Piano Toucan.

Look, it's Lavender Scaly Unicorn!

Peridot Dancing Meerkat.

Yeah!

Aw! Awesome Arnau.

Aw, Super Silly Sloth.

-Pink.

-Sparkly.

-Football.

Yay!

Yay!

Fan of the Month is inside the pasty.

-Take it out.

-It is...

Topaz Hyper Echidna!

Beige Mini Butterfly!

Well done!

For being a lovely person, for having lots of great game

ideas and for making sure that everyone's involved and

coming up with some lovely questions during the web chats...

May's Fan of the Month is...

Cue the lights!

It's Pink Sparkle Cupcake!

CHEERING Whoa!

-Thank you very much.

-Well done.

-Congratulations.

-Wow.

Barney, how are we going to clean all this confetti up?

-To be honest, I've done enough cleaning for one week.

-Really?

You'll see why. I actually went to clean some mushrooms

-at the Royal Albert Hall.

-Pardon?

Sounds weird but this will make it make sense.

Now, we get to do some pretty weird and wonderful things on Blue Peter.

So when I was asked to come down to the Royal Albert Hall to

clean some mushrooms, that didn't really sound out of the ordinary.

I mean, why wouldn't I be at the Royal Albert Hall

to clean some mushrooms?

Royal Albert Hall...

mushroom.

And luckily I'm a fun guy!

I'm up for anything.

Opened by Queen Victoria way back in 1871,

the Royal Albert Hall is one of the world's most famous concert venues.

It hosts around 400 events every year,

ranging from rock concerts to the BBC Proms with live orchestras.

But why am I here today and what does it have to do with mushrooms?

Well, technical performance manager Steph is here to explain.

Steph, what's happening in here?

We are doing cleaning and service inspections as part of our

-annual maintenance weeks.

-So you do it every year?

We do twice a year, usually around April and September.

OK, and where do the mushrooms come in?

It's all about the acoustics.

Ah, acoustics. What are they?

Well, you may have noticed when you make a noise it can sound

different in different places. That's acoustics.

It's the study of how sound travels.

When a noise is made,

the sound waves spread out and react with objects around them.

They might bounce off surfaces and echo or get soaked up and

fade away. And that affects what you actually hear.

Let me demonstrate with my trusty trombone.

So, in a long tunnel like this...

..it can sound quite echoey.

But here in this library,

the books and furniture absorb the sound waves

rather than reflect them,

so there's less echo. Even if I use the same instrument.

The Albert Hall is a big circle with a high roof,

meaning there's lots of room for sound to start bouncing around,

which makes it an acoustic nightmare.

So the sound hasn't always been good here, has it?

It's been particularly echoey when it first opened because

of the unusual shape of the building.

And originally it had a glass roof that was fully exposed,

so sound would bounce off the roof and reflect all across.

So when you had a lot of musicians in here who were all performing,

-the sound was just everywhere, it didn't sound very good.

-Yeah.

Yeah, about five-second echo.

The solution was these - fibreglass acoustic diffusers or mushrooms.

Installed in the 1960s,

there are now 85 keeping the acoustics of the hall in check.

But how do they work? Well, let me show you...

with a water pistol and a spoon?

Now, the spoon here represents the roof of the Royal Albert Hall.

-And the water pistol represents the sound.

-Exactly.

If we squirt the sound at the roof of the Royal Albert Hall,

watch what happens.

Kind of goes everywhere, doesn't it?

If we turn the spoon over like this, that represents the

mushrooms in the ceiling, and if we now squirt

the sound onto them, watch what happens.

It kind of spreads it over the spoon and then concentrates it down.

So if we imagine that on a massive scale, everybody would get

really wet, wouldn't they?

And that's... We're talking about sound now, not water.

But with hundreds of events every year, the mushrooms often require

a good clean out, but how do we get them down?

I hope you've got a head for heights

-cos you're going all the way up there!

-Ha-ha!

I thought you'd never ask!

Now I know what you mean when you said do I have a head for heights?

This is incredibly high. Where are we?

We are in the roof, this area is called the corona.

It's a great place to see the Royal Albert Hall from,

it's a stunningly huge building.

-What's this room actually used for?

-We sometimes have balloon drops

and confetti drops.

-Amazing. Is that what these trap doors are for?

-Yes.

So at the end of a concert, when you see the confetti falling

and the balloons, you're actually dropping them from this trap door.

-Yep.

-Very cool. And you'll see the mushrooms and you can see why they

get stuff in them because if you're dropping confetti from up here,

of course it's going to land in some of the mushrooms.

I can actually see a balloon there in that mushroom

so that definitely needs a clean.

But to clean it, we need to get it down from the roof.

As the mushroom comes down like a thing from outer space, it was time

to put on my protective suit and become...

Cleaning Man.

Oh, that's not right.

-OK, let's get started, first job, get this out.

-Yeah.

-OK.

It becomes pretty obvious pretty quickly

why we need to be dressed like this.

These mushrooms are filthy.

When we were at the top of the roof before, looking

down on the mushrooms, we could see balloons and confetti in it,

but now that we're up close, there's all sorts of things in

here you that wouldn't expect.

That's one of those balloons that whizzes round the room.

Cleaning this is not easy.

There's not "much room" to manoeuvre!

-HE CHUCKLES

-Missed a bit.

Yes, all right, Steph, thank you, I've got it.

I can't believe how dirty this is. A part of me loves that we're

cleaning a bit of history, they've been here for nearly 60 years and

still doing a great job so I think

it's only right we make them look new again.

There were originally 135 mushrooms but thankfully for me and the

cleaning team, they took 50 out after thorough acoustic testing.

-Phew!

-Well, I think this is looking much better.

-That's actually not a bad job, is it?

-Yeah.

-Oh, no.

-I think it's ready to go back up.

Yeah. Brilliant!

And with that, it was time to send this mushroom back to its friends.

So now the mushrooms have been cleaned and restored back into the

roof, the Royal Albert Hall's acoustics have been returned to

world-class. I'll show you, here we go.

TROMBONE WHIMPERS

OK, maybe I, erm... Maybe I missed a bit, I'll...

I'll just go and...

He's a funny one! So the Albert Hall is now spotlessly clean, enough to

host the Eurovision Song Contest. Of course, semifinals tonight.

Here are Mel and Scott with an update for us

of what we can look forward to.

Hello and welcome to Ukraine, we're in Kyiv

for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 and we've got our badges on.

Badges very much on. We're in the arena, everything's hotting up,

it's going to be such a great competition.

-We've met some really cool people as well.

-Yes.

-Who have you met?

I've met pretty much everyone on the red carpet at the opening

ceremony, including a man from Montenegro called Slavko.

Look out for him if you watch the show because he has

a really long ponytail

-Like a metre long. He's going to whip it back and forth.

-Wow.

I met the Italian entry Francesco, who has a gorilla with him

at all times, the gorilla dances,

and I also met an amazing yodelling girl called Ilinca,

I think you'll really like her, she's got an amazing voice.

You can watch it all on BBC FOUR, the second semifinal,

tonight at eight o'clock or catch up on iPlayer.

Shall we show them the commentary booth?

Come and see where we do our thing.

Oh, welcome to the booth!

As you can see, we get a perfect view of the stage from here,

we have so many notes on all the different acts.

We've got headphones. Those go on.

Which country and more stuff about the artist and the song.

-Also, these little on-air buttons we press to speak.

-Yeah.

-Yes.

-Got the headphones on.

-Oh!

-Oh! It's about to start!

-We're about to go.

OK, I hope you enjoyed the little tour of the booth and the commentary

area here in Kyiv, thank you very much.

-Watch tonight on BBC FOUR, thank you, Blue Peter.

-Bye, Blue Peter!

Thank you, Scott and Mel. See you on Saturday night for the finals.

That's on BBC ONE and on BBC iPlayer. If you don't get enough

Eurovision action, then don't worry,

I'm going behind the scenes on next week's show.

And on next week's show, Radzi's back! We can't wait.

And I face my biggest fear and go diving with

sharks. Truly terrifying, look at it!

Now, Spot Shelley was the most difficult on Earth today,

it was literally in those last few seconds of that film.

Go to BP Fan Club Live to find out who spotted her first

and, of course, won their very own sports car!

-That's not true.

-Mm-mm.

Now let's find out how the Eurovision entry will sound

for this weekend's final. She's lovely, she's beautiful, she's going

to win it - it's Lucie Jones. We'll see you next week.

APPLAUSE

# Tell me your secrets

# I'll keep 'em safe

# No sign of weakness It's a sign of a faith

# We'll stand tall

# So you don't fall

# You're not defeated

# You're in repair

# Don't have to call me

# I'll always be there

# We'll stand tall

# So you don't fall

# If you could see how far you've walked

# You would see that all's not lost

# I will never give up on you

# I don't care what I've got to lose

# Just give me your hand and hold on

# Together, we'll dance through this storm

# I will never give up on you

# You're the one that I'm running to

# Just give me your hand and hold on

# Together, we'll dance through this storm

# Under the surface, I see you glow

# I'm right beside you

# You're never alone

# Don't let go

# When you're so close

# If you could see how far you've walked

# You would see that all's not lost

# I will never give up on you

# I don't care what I've got to lose

# Just give me your hand and hold on

# Together, we'll dance through this storm

# I will never give up on you

# You're the one that I'm running to

# Just give me your hand and hold on

# Together, we're dancing through

# This madness

# We're running through

# This magic

# It's inside of you

# This madness

# This madness

# Now you can see how far you've walked

# The mountains climbed

# The oceans crossed

# I don't care what I've got to lose

# Just give me your hand and hold on

# Together, we'll dance through this storm

# I will never give up on you

# You're the one that I'm running to

# Just give me your hand and hold on

# Together, we'll dance through this storm. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE