On Thursday, the BBC tweeted:
Due to unforeseen circumstances, unfortunately Ncuti Gatwa is no longer able to participate as Spokesperson during the Grand Final this weekend.
Instead, Sophie Ellis-Bextor will be calling out the UK’s points.
According to Scottish newspaper The national,
The BBC’s announcement came during the second semi-final, reportedly just minutes after Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael qualified for the final.
Somebody pulled up two tweets, one pronouncing the finalists, and the BBC’s announcement that Gatwa wouldn’t be presenting — there was a 2 minute time difference. It seems too short a time to make any decisions, but he may have had stipulations for appearing?
I don’t want to make any more assumptions than the National quote above, but I have thoughts about Who depicting Eurovision-by-proxy as a fun, apolitical event, where a competing country just happens to commit ongoing atrocities…
Now, if RTD and the BBC had the guts to pull a “Happiness patrol” on that particular escapism, well played — but I don’t think it’s in the cards.