Britain has come under fire for failing to take the Eurovision Song Contest seriously - and part of the reason is because of Terry Wogan, Sweden's head of the competition claimed

Britain has come under fire for failing to take the Eurovision Song Contest seriously.

Christer Bjorkman, Sweden's head of Eurovision, spoke out ahead of this year's contest, which his country is hosting in Stockholm on May 14.

Mr Bjorkman urged Graham Norton, who is presenting the contest for the BBC, to stop poking fun at the contestants as his predecessor, Sir Terry Wogan, who died in January, also did.

Discussing why Eurovision is not taken seriously by the British, Mr Bjorkman said: 'There are several reasons – and one of them is Terry Wogan.'

He added: 'He did this for 25 years or something and his commentary was always towards the mockery side.

'There is a grown up generation in Britain who doesn't know anything about that and if you go back to the days in the 60s or the 70s when Britain ruled this competition that wasn't the case then.

'So something happened somewhere along the line where you actually changed your perception of the competition.'

Asked about Mr Norton's style of presenting, Mr Bjokrman agreed he was following in the footsteps of Wogan and said: 'It doesn't work.'

But speaking at a Polar Talks event in London this week, the fertility expert Professor Sir Robert Winston said: 'Terry Wogan was quite disrespectful but I think that very often the disrespect was fully deserved.'

He added: 'The idea that the Eurovision song contest is, and forgive me for saying this, it's the idea that the Eurovision song contest is the ultimate musical achievement is absolutely nonsense.'