Sonia

Clive (Kevin McNally) and Carol Smith (Rebecca Lacey) are a Merseyside couple who are struggling to raise their two teenage children, Wayne (Scott Neal) and Debbie (Heather Jones)

It’s the city that gave birth to The Beatles, inspired Gerry to ride that ferry, and spawned Bunnymen and Atomic Kittens. Now with all eyes – and ears – on Liverpool for the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, a look into the BBC’s archives for a selection of performances from some of Merseyside’s biggest and best-loved musical stars.

A specially created compilation of unused material from her incredibly successful 1998 BBC series

Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman were the producers who came, SAW and conquered the UK charts in the 1980s, spinning the music scene right round like a record with their instantly recognisable brand of disco floor-filling pop hits. The trio divided the nation between those who loved their Hi-NRG sound and the singers they transformed into tabloid sensations, and a music press that loathed them for turning record producing into a production line. Today, many of SAW’s most memorable hits are considered classics of their time, and the very best of them are celebrated in this new selection, featuring such artists as Rick Astley, Dead or Alive, Donna Summer, Bananarama, Mel & Kim and, of course, Kylie and Jason

In the final days of the yuppie decade, the summer of ’89 saw a new type of youth rebellion rip through the cultural landscape, with thousands of young people dancing at illegal Acid House parties in fields and aircraft hangars around the M25. Set against the backdrop of ten years of Thatcherism, it was a benign form of revolution, dubbed the Second Summer of Love – all the ravers wanted was the freedom to party… The rave scene, along with the drug Ecstasy, broke down social barriers and even football hooligans were ‘loved up’, solving a problem the government had never managed to crack. But lurid tabloid headlines and cat-and-mouse games with the police eventually turned the dream sour, as the gangster element moved in at the end of the summer.

Greg James and Russell Kane present a look at all the ingredients needed to become a Eurovision winner, celebrating the UK's successes and also its hall of shame.

Lily Savage performs her first live tour in four years, captured here at the 1998 Edinburgh Festival. Lily pulls no punches in an act designed to demonstrate that, despite her mainstream television breakthrough with 'Blankety Blank', she is still as outrageous as ever.

Angela Rippon presents a guide to some of the Eurovision Song Contest's most disastrous moments. Including the kiss that ruined the chances of Danish singer Birthe Wilke.