We have been contacted by many people who are having an Eurovision fancy dress party tonight, is it because this year’s entry has had quite a lot of air play that has got more of us behind it?

If you are local to our fancy dress shop in Battlesbridge, Essex pop in to get your union jack flags to join in the patriotic spirit, or if you want to dress up in a country costume, then pop in to have a look at our huge range of costumes & accessories.

Some of our accessory/ costume Eurovision ideas include:

• French Berets
• French Maids
• Union Jack Top Hats
• Irish Hats
• German Hats, or plaited wigs
• Abba costumes – Sweden
• Finland – Father Christmas
• Greece – Ancient Greek costume
• Israel – Jesus costume
• Italy – Gangster costumes
• Russia – Cossack Costumes
• Spain – Spanish Dancers / Matador
• Turkey – Turkey costume

In the normal course of affairs we would be embarking on a bank holiday weekend today but this year we live in interesting and different times and instead we have Eurovision tonight and the BAFTA Television Awards tomorrow night. We have already spent a little time on Eurovision, so let’s take a look at the Awards. These are for the television programmes themselves, rather than honouring the ‘back-stage/behind screen people such as costumiers, make-up artists and sound & light wizards who have their own Technical Awards. Nonetheless, many were surprised when arguably the greatest costume drama of recent months, Downton Abbey, was overlooked in the nominations, but then some of the awards are based on the populist vote. Many people are happier watching ‘Adventures in Talent Spotting with Ant & Dec’ or the more recent ‘Anything You Can Sing, I Can Sing Different’ rather than immerse themselves in historical drama (unless it’s about midwives, in which case you risk losing half the viewers’ interest, and so that apparently doesn’t merit a nomination).