Now we are giving people the opportunity, so let's see what happens.". The last time I met Kevin Coyne, he was reclined, his eyes half closed, breathing through two tubes, one implanted in each nostril, connected to an oxygen cylinder A few friends were at his side. But rock, dance, big ballads and straightforward pop will work. Recent hits that the competition bosses think might offer inspiration include "Hard to Beat" by Hard-Fi, "Push the Button" by Sugababes and "Good Luck" by Basement Jaxx.Colin Martin, Radio 2's music editor, said: "Every year, people sit there and think: 'we can do better than that I'm sure I can come up with a song that is as good as that'. The UK's last win was in 1997 when Katrina and the Waves triumphed with the ballad "Love Shine a Light".Organisers have already given some pointers to the types of song that will do best - R&B tunes and folk are out, they say. Javine's song "Touch My Fire" managed 22nd place earlier this year and James Fox ranked 16th the year before.In 2003 fortunes hit an all time low when duo Jemini became the first UK act to score "nul points" with a song written by the head of Sir Paul McCartney's Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts. That track will be entered into a televised vote against four professionally written tracks, with viewers picking the final Eurovision hopeful. UK entries have performed woefully in the past three years.

Members of the public will be asked to put forward their own compositions. BBC Radio 2 will then draw up a shortlist of 10 songs, with a panel of music stars choosing the best one. For years, viewers have watched the Eurovision Song Contest and grumbled that they could come up with something better Now, for the first time, they can put it the test. There was a coup?with a hatchback rear door, but the convertible is the most desirable model Rust, however, has claimed many if not most S800s.. This meant that, though the top speed was limited, the 781cc engine would rev to an ear-splitting 11,000rpm. It would seem that all of Honda's engineering budget went into the engine, however, as the rest of the car was, even for 1966, primitive with a separate chassis and, on early cars (badged S500s) a chain drive to the rear wheels.

One of the reasons for its diminutive scale was that the S800 was powered by a development of a Honda motorcycle engine. You don't really get a sense of just how tiny this car is from photographs but, I assure you, if you ever encountered one in the flesh you could quite easily mistake it for one of those cars Barbie tools around in. None of these faults should put you off buying a Civic if the Blake's 7 look floats your boat, but I feel duty bound to warn you that it will probably all start to look very dated right about.. now. PS: Having been tiresomely sanctimonious about the lavish hospitality/institutionalised bribery of car launches in the past, I would like to point out that I accepted no hospitality from Honda, and went to Nice and back in a day (despite dropping hints about feeling tired and in need of five-star pampering). Meanwhile, some journalists who shall remain nameless, stayed at the Four Seasons, with their wives.

It can only be a matter of time before a company offers journos the chance to stay at the Four Seasons with someone else's wife Rest assured I shall make my excuses. It's a classic Honda S800 convertible My favourite classic Honda has to be the dinky little S800 convertible. And to top it all there is the rear spoiler, integral to, and horizontally bisecting, the rear window so that it has glass above and below. It knocks the new Citro?C6's rear window - which manages to be both concave and convex - into a cocked hat. I tried the top of the range 2.2-litre diesel version. There's the usual gravel-in-a-tin-bucket rattle at idle but at speed, a cheery turbo whistle takes over.

This used to be a turbo's way of reminding you not to overtake anyone suddenly, as it wouldn't have had time to spool up the power, and you'd be left pottering and panicking into oncoming traffic, but the Civic's thrust comes almost immediately. It's a fun drive - light, agile, yet with a splendidly comfortable ride. It is as perky as its chief rival, the Focus, and thanks to those Space 1999 aesthetics, considerably more charismatic. Honda is one of the great car makers of our time which, personally, made the brittle cheapness of some of the plastic bits tantamount to a betrayal. That spangly silver, plastic petrol flap is an abomination, for instance, and the steering wheel annoyed me from the start because my unusually short arms (a sign of intelligence, I maintain) couldn't reach it. The wheel is a messy collage of leather, plastic, various buttons (wheels, flaps and pushers) and, inexplicably, a tiny filet of mesh on the middle spoke Bizarre.