We were offered Bianca, who belted out a brilliant, Eurovision-tastic pop classic. We were offered the adorable bookies' favourite Darline, who performed sleek and charming country-pop that is hugely popular across Europe. But who did we choose instead? Two fifths of an alternate universe One Direction.

This may yet turn out to have been a terrible decision by the British public, but let's be honest: it could so easily have been worse. They're no Scooch, Daz Sampson or Jemini. And they're much better than last year's Electro Velvet.

Their song sounds contemporary. They seem like nice lads. And even though plenty of people will have wished that we could have sent Bianca, whose live vocals were perfection and whose song was Eurovision from top to toe, there's no need to be downhearted.

There are a lot of big diva ballads like Bianca's being sent to Eurovision this year (see Spain, Iceland, Switzerland and Belgium's contenders, for starters), and these lads could stand out in a crowd.

But nice doesn't always cut it, and right now it's not looking great for our chances of winning the thing.