Eurovision Song Context

Episode 92: Is Opera Dying, or Have We Stopped Thinking? With Katie Glass

October 21st, 2026  |  1 hr 24 mins

Journalism, albania 2012, anne-marie david, arts education, australia 2019, british post office scandal, class, classical music, cultural accessibility, cultural elitism, esc, eurovision, eurovision song contest, eurovision song context, eurovision ticket prices, glyndebourne, go_a, high culture, kate miller-heidke, katie glass, luxembourg 1973, mr bates vs the post office, opera, operatic pop, popular culture, reading, rona nishliu, shum, suus, tu te reconnaîtras, ukraine 2021, zero gravity

In this episode of Eurovision Song Context, Bradley is joined by award-winning British journalist and columnist Katie Glass to explore opera, cultural accessibility, class, education and the changing ways we engage with art.

Katie's recent article for the London Standard argues that opera's ageing audience reflects something bigger than ticket prices: a society increasingly uncomfortable with difficult art, sustained attention and intellectual challenge.

We discuss everything from discovering opera on a date to Glyndebourne's extravagant picnics, the merits of watching performances at home, whether art should be made easier to attract new audiences, and the differences between opera and Eurovision.

Then Katie watches four Eurovision performances, including operatic pop, extraordinary vocal technique, a classic Luxembourg winner and Ukrainian electro-folk.

We finish with Katie's reporting on the British Post Office scandal, and how her work helped inspire the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

Katie is an award-winning feature writer and columnist whose work has appeared in The Times, The Sunday Times, Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Standard and numerous other publications.

Her reporting often examines how major social issues affect ordinary people. Her Sunday Times Magazine investigation into the Post Office scandal helped inspire the television drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

Episode 89: Define, Then See: Journalist Tony Connolly on Europe's Stereotypes

July 12th, 2026  |  57 mins 29 secs

Journalism, Ukraine, all kinds of everything, brussels, croatia, cultural identity, dana, don't mention the wars, esc, espresso macchiato, estonia, european stereotypes, european union, eurovision, eurovision song contest, father ted, fawlty towers, geopolitics, ireland, let 3, mama šč, national identity, podcast, rté, tommy cash, tony connolly

"We define, then we see". In this episode, Bradley sits down with journalist Tony Connolly, RTÉ's Europe Editor based in Brussels, to talk about his book Don't Mention the Wars: A Journey Through European Stereotypes. Tony traces where our national stereotypes actually come from, why the brain reaches for them under stress, and how much truth (if any) is buried inside them.
The conversation turns to Eurovision, where stereotyping isn't just cultural shorthand, it's staged. We talk through Dana's "All Kinds of Everything," Ireland's 1970 winner and a reminder of Ireland's early Eurovision dominance; Tommy Cash's "Espresso Macchiato," Estonia's cheeky (and controversial) sendup of Italian stereotypes; and Let 3's "Mama ŠČ!," Croatia's 2023 entry, which used Cold War-era imagery to smuggle a pointed anti-war message onto the Eurovision stage. Plus: the Fawlty Towers line that gave the book its title, and the Father Ted episode that Eurovision itself couldn't have written better.