For 35 years Terry Wogan has presided over the BBC’s coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest, often providing more entertainment with his ascerbic observations of the competition than the acts themselves.

Yesterday, however, the veteran broadcaster announced that he had grown tired of the bloc-voting that has come to characterise the event as a repository for settling Cold War scores, and said that he had commentated for the last time. He is to be replaced by Graham Norton.

Sir Terry, 70, cast doubt on his future association with the contest after Russia won the 2008 title in May, scooping top points from a host of Eastern European neighbours.

Describing it as “no longer a music contest”, he said: “The UK and the BBC has to decide whether they want to take part any more. I don’t want to be presiding over yet another debacle. Russia were going to be the political winners from the beginning.”

Times Archive, 1982: John Peel on the Eurovision Song Content

'Bucks Fizz won with one of those infuriating tunes one discovers oneself humming instead of something obscure and challenging'

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The Eurovision organisers announced in September that juries were to be reintroduced to the competition, in an attempt to negate the tactical voting by Eastern bloc states.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is to write Britain’s entry to next year’s competition, to be held in Russia. He will also preside over an X-Factor-style BBC competition, Your Country Needs You, to find a British candidate. Neither was enough to tempt Sir Terry to remain. “Nothing goes on for ever,” he said. “I’ve been slightly disappointed at the UK showing over the last few years . . . Of course, you’d have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to realise that since the Eastern European countries have come in the voting has changed, not necessarily for the best.”

The broadcaster said that he thought Britain should enter a well-known group such as Take That to have a chance of winning. Norton had been in the running to take over from Wogan since Sir Terry intimated six months ago that he was considering standing down. At one stage Jonathan Ross was favourite to get the job, but the obscene-phonecalls row involving the veteran actor Andrew Sachs scuppered his chances.

Norton, 45, who is thought to be on a £5 million, two-year deal with the BBC, initially joined the corporation from Channel 4 in 2005, has been associated with the Eurovision brand for two years, during which he has presented the dance version of the song contest for two years.

Norton said: “Sir Terry is nothing less than a legend and is an impossible act to follow, but somebody must and I just couldn’t say no. I can’t wait to get to Moscow. With a combination of cheap vodka and a language barrier what could possibly go wrong?”

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