Woeful Wogan names the nation's wrong choice for Eurovision

Now Terry Wogan has had his comeuppance after making a spectacular blunder on the show to decide this year's UK entry.

Millions of viewers saw the 68-year-old broadcaster announce the wrong winner on BBC1 on Saturday night.

Wogan blurted out the name of losing finalist Cyndi Almouzni, leaving co-host Fearne Cotton to quickly step in and announce the real winner, the pop quartet Scooch.

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As confusion reigned, a disappointed Miss Almouzni was hurriedly ushered off stage, leaving Scooch to celebrate their victory in the phone-in vote.

Yesterday the BBC apologised for the gaffe, saying: "This is live TV and unfortunately sometimes these things do happen."

And in a reference to the TV phone-in scandal embroiling a number of broadcasters, director-general Mark Thompson said: "I think they were trying so hard to get the phones right that something else must have gone wrong.

"Whoever's fault it was, I am sure it was not Terry Wogan's."

The contest descended into farce as viewers rang in to vote for their Howour busy favourite contender from a field including Justin Hawkins, former lead singer of rock band The Darkness, former Atomic Kitten Liz McClarnon and ex-East 17 singer Brian Harvey.

They were narrowed down to two finalists - 22-year-old Miss Almouzni, who sang a solo ballad called I'll Leave My Heart, and Scooch, who enjoyed a top ten hit seven years ago but then disbanded.

The group reformed for Eurovision with the novelty song Flying The Flag, which they performed wearing airline steward outfits.

Scooch, who like to bill themselves as "this generation's Bucks Fizz", will now go through to the international contest in Helsinki in May.

It emerged yesterday that the BBC could be fined hundreds of thousands of pounds for its part in the TV phone-in scandal - a prospect described as a 'wake-up call' by Mr Thompson.

The media watchdog Ofcom, which is investigating the alleged phone rip-off, has warned it could fine the broadcaster up to £250,000 of licence-payers' money.

The inquiry was triggered after viewers were asked to phone in to the 'live' Saturday Kitchen programme even though it had been pre-recorded.

Blue Peter was also affected after 13,862 viewers rang in to a competition to win a toy but after a 'technical fault' a girl visiting the studio was awarded the prize.

Two winners are declared

Scooch perform their winning entry