BELOW IS A REPOST OF A BLOG I WROTE IN 2017, ONE YEAR AFTER SIR TERRY’S DEATH
These last few years have been very emotional times for fans of light entertainment, witnessing the passing of so many of Britain’s best loved faces. For many, these people remained as a constant throughout our lives and were able to perfectly preside over British life irrespective of fashion or fads. The mediums of both television and radio create an intimacy between performer and audience meaning that broadcasters have a responsibility to bridge the gap between the airwaves and become like a part of the family. It’s a big task to undertake, but if done right, it can ensure a lifetime of entertainment success.
On the 31st January 2016, Britain woke to the tragic news that Sir Terry Wogan had passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by his family at the age of 77 following a short but brave battle with cancer. A great sense of shock was felt throughout the showbiz fraternity as the man who had been present at almost every major event of the last 50 years would be there no longer.
His first love was radio and the listening figures for his infamous radio breakfast show proved it. Beginning his broadcasting career as an announcer on the Irish radio station Raidió Teilifís Éireann, he was promptly offered a television game show on the Irish channel RTÈ. Jackpot gave Wogan his first television success and despite not living up to his hero Eamonn Andrews, this made him an overnight household name in Ireland but the former banker had his sights firmly set on pastures further afield. In 1966 he moved to the BBC, initially based in Dublin, working for The Light Programme yet it wasn’t long before a brand new station came calling. BBC Radio 1 was established in 1967 and Terry was selected as the host of the Tuesday edition of Late Night Extra for two years.
It was here where he met Jimmy Young who was to have such a dominant effect on the direction of his career. So when he found himself in 1972 as the new host of the Radio 2 Breakfast Show, Wogan and Young’s handovers became legendary. The Terry Wogan Breakfast Show ran for twelve years until 1984 and became one of the first radio programmes to involve the public, not just as merely passive subsidiaries but genuine contributors to the show. This allowed him to instigate national campaigns such as Fighting The Flab encouraging his listeners to lose weight. In short, Wogan reflected and celebrated the national mood of the day and his fans loved him for it.
His success on radio didn’t take long to filter through to the BBC Light Entertainment department as they pondered whether he would be able to make that all important switch to television. In 1973 Wogan landed his first major BBC presenting role as host of the long running entertainment series Come Dancing. Despite a six year stint on the show, he would often joke that his contribution was so insignificant that the public still thought it was hosted by former presenter Peter West. Yet Come Dancing was to boost Terry’s profile within the public eye as the television audience was finally able to put a face to the now familiar voice. This success led to Wogan being put forward to present significant television events including the Miss World contest.
Suddenly Terry Wogan became a permanent fixture of the BBC Light entertainment department and producers and television executives were promptly on the lookout for a format which would accommodate his special relationship with the British public. In 1979 he was given his own BBC game show Blankety Blank in which a a panel of six celebrities assisted two contestants to solve riddles and win star prizes. Primed with an elongated phallic shaped microphone, Wogan set about attempting to take charge over the fast paced format but subject to the celebrity guests, that didn’t always go according to plan. Anarchists such as Kenny Everett would frequently attempt to bend or even break the microphone which ultimately became a favourite feature of the show. Like any great broadcaster, Terry thrived on things going wrong and the mayhem of Blankety Blank was perfect to showcase this.
The success of Blankety Blank caught the attention of rival broadcaster LWT. They had already poached its producer Alan Boyd but now they were after the star of the show. Boyd was now in charge of a brand new Saturday night format surrounding instigating pranks on the general public and wanted Terry to jump ship in order to host it. Wogan stood firm and stayed loyal to the corporation which had made him a household name. Candid Camera was forced to prevail without its original star at the helm but instead gave the opportunity to its researcher Jeremy Beadle to steady the ship. It would be another two decades before Wogan once again experimented with commercial television, this time for The Terry and Gaby Show on Channel 5.
In 1984 Wogan bid a fond farewell to the Radio 2 Breakfast Show when he was offered the opportunity to front a prime time early evening chat show on BBC1. The former BBC king of chat Michael Parkinson left the corporation two years previously for a place on the TV-AM sofa and had yet to be replaced. Former head of Light entertainment Bill Cotton had always seen Wogan’s television potential and figured that he would be the the perfect person to head up an American styled talk show. Initially seen as a Saturday night straight talking format, it didn’t take long for producers to realise that the show had more scope.
The TV series Wogan was then broadcast live three nights per week on BBC1 for the next decade and saw Terry get up close and personal with some of the most famous people in the world. This came with it’s fair share of consequences, the most obvious being the unpredictable nature of the guests who walked down those stairs. Whether it was the actress Ann Bancroft who came out in an unresponsive catatonic trance which made the interview almost impossible or George Best taking a little too much advantage of the complimentary mini bar, Wogan always had the ability to transform disaster into TV gold.
More informal than Parkinson, the series thrived on the ability to reflect the entertainment stories of the day with celebrities regularly making impromptu appearances. A well renowned sceptic of the television interview, comedy legend Ronnie Barker made a surprise visit to the Wogan set a year into retirement following a complaint made by a frustrated customer at his new antique store. The consummate impartial professional, Terry realised the importance of hearing Barker’s side of the story while fulfilling the public’s interest in a comedy icon.
Terry Wogan was now one of the most famous men in Britain and wasn’t scared to put his face to a good cause. On Christmas Day 1979 he was put forward to front a short appeal on behalf of a brand new charity BBC Children in Need. The programme instantly struck a chord with the public to the extent that just eleven months later BBC Television Centre was the setting for the first Children in Need seven-hour extravaganza presented by Esther Rantzen, Sue Lawley and the man himself. Throughout the next thirty four years, Wogan became synonymous with both the charity and its big night each November encouraging the biggest names in entertainment to spare their time so the public would dig deep for a good cause.
I was lucky enough to meet the great man at the 2007 Children in Need appeal live from BBC Television Centre and was amazed at his ability to personally go into the audience and engage with his public in between links. To continue to present such a long-running telethon for over thirty years is testimony to both his accomplishments as a broadcaster and his charitable outlook as a man. Yet his ties with Children in Need didn’t just stop at presenting duties. As a tireless campaigner for the charity he was a driving force behind major events throughout the year and his Radio 2 Auction For Things Money Can’t Buy which lasted for over thirty years was supported by some of the most prolific figures in the world.
Wogan also spent twenty-eight years presiding over the Eurovision Song Contest with his unique commentary which always balanced vicariously between tongue in cheek and mild xenophobic references to the absurdity of the whole thing. While other nations saw it as a fierce battle for singing supremacy, he was too aware of the oddities and bizarre moments which made this show what it was. He had the unique ability to see everything through the eyes of the viewer and often said what the television audience was thinking. Forever criticised by his European colleagues for not giving the show the respect it deserved, Terry realised that the watching nation at home wasn’t tuning in for its musical prowess and so became a gentle jostler over proceedings. Of course, this was majorly assisted by an ample sized bottle of Bailey’s Irish Cream which he would frequently insist on “sampling” to help him through the evening. A master at balancing just on the mark, Wogan constantly had a sharp quip or an irreverent observation surrounding the action which was taking place.
A rare win for the United Kingdom in 1998 with Katrina And The Waves with the song Love Shine A Light meant that the next year’s show would be in the UK. This resulted in yet another career high for Terry as he teamed up with Sweden’s Ulrika Joñsson live from the Birmingham International Arena. The evening was definitely a highlight in Wogan’s Eurovision career and saw him cope with the art of presenting in multiple languages. In the succeeding years frustrated with the steady influx of political voting, Eurovision began to lose the innocent magic for Wogan, so the 2008 contest in Serbia proved to be his last and was aptly replaced by Graham Norton.
In 1994 after the demise of his early evening chat show, he returned to Radio 2 for the newly titled Wake Up To Wogan. It was here that he championed unknown musical artists and together with his producer; the late Paul Walters, he launched the careers of some of our best loved musicians including Eva Cassidy and Katie Melua. Beyond its musical success, the show spawned its own community with avid listeners regularly writing in with funny stories and jokes. Being a breakfast show, it required a team around Wogan to join in the jovial atmosphere. Newsreader John Marsh one day happened to mention that his wife was called Janet. This spawned the now infamous Janet and John stories, jam packed full with blatant innuendo almost unthinkable for a mainstream radio Breakfast Show. The overly suggestive material which Terry regularly attempted to read out could be considered as incredibly racey. Yet somehow because it was Terry Wogan, people just accepted it because those deep Irish tones could even make the most explicit material seem totally innocent.
In 2009 Terry sent shockwaves around the BBC and indeed the whole nation when he revealed that he would be leaving his beloved breakfast show at the end of the year. The news even reached national headlines and was a favourite subject on everyone’s lips as the countdown began. Friday 18th December 2009 was a very emotional day at Radio 2 marking the end of an era for both Terry and his listeners. For once he abstained from his usual bantering patter with the following presenter, his friend Ken Bruce. Instead he signed off with emotional words from the heart.
“This is it, then. This is the day I have been dreading – the inevitable morning when you and I come to the parting of the ways, the last Wake Up To Wogan.
It wasn’t always thus. For the first 12 years it was the plain old Terry Wogan Show and you were all Twits, the Terry Wogan is Tops Society.
When I returned to the bosom of our family, it became Wake Up To Wogan and you all became TOGs, Terry’s Old Geezers and Gals.
It’s always been a source of enormous pride to me that you have come together in my name, that you are proud to call yourself my listeners, that you think of me as a friend, someone that you are close enough to laugh with, to poke fun at and occasionally, when the world seemed just a little too cruel, to shed a tear with.
And the years together with you have not only been a pleasure but a privilege. You have allowed me to share your lives with you. When you tell me how important I have been in your lives it’s very moving. You have been every bit as important in mine.
We have been through at least a couple of generations together, for many of you – your children, like mine, now have children of their own. And your support for Children In Need has been consistent and magnificent. You’ve baked the bakes, you’ve held the quizzes, you’ve sold the calendars, you’ve packed the CDs and the DVDs. You’ve answered the phones – always there when we’ve called on you, unheralded and unsung. And if anybody embodies the generous, warm spirit of this country it’s you, my listeners.
I am not going to pretend that this is not a sad day – you can probably hear it in my voice. I am going to miss the laughter and the fun of our mornings together. I know you are going to welcome Chris Evans with the same generosity of spirit that you have always shown me.
So, I am going to miss you, until we are together again in February, have a happy Christmas.
Thank you, thank you for being my friend”
Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2016/01/31/people-are-sharing-the-moment-sir-terry-wogan-said-farewell-to-his-wake-up-to-wogan-listeners-5654085/#ixzz4tmHoRQei
In recent years he has continued to delight his legions of fans swapping weekday breakfast for Sunday lunchtime still with that loved sense of madcap humour. This freed up time to explore other ventures including travelogs and retrospective documentaries about his extraordinary life and career.
Sir Terry Wogan will be missed not only by the thousands of TOGS throughout Britain but the viewing nation as a whole. He became like an extended part of the family and was loved and admired in equal measure by millions of people. It seems almost impossible to think of this country without him, yet by the sheer volume of work he created across radio and television Wogan may be gone, but never forgotten.
Beyond The Title