With a career lasting over 5 decades that spanned TV interviewing, TV Charity programme Children in Need which he had done every show until last year, His morning breakfast Radio show and even voice over for Eurovision which made it more watchable. It is safe to say he is going to be missed by many, family have asked for privacy in this sad time and it is reported after a short battle against Cancer he passed away to day 31st January and the nation will miss his voice, personality and his smiling caring face.
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On august the 3rd 1938 in a small Town in Ireland Called Limerick. He started out working at Raidio Teilifis Eireann RTE an Irish broadcasting company which included work with interviews, presenting features before he moved to the entertainment part and started his Disc Jockey days as well as TV quiz show host in the Late 60’s Terry approached the BBC for extra work and started small radio programmes like late night extra, he commuted to and from Dublin Ireland to London weekly when he did this. When he covered another presenter’s mid-morning show for a short period of time he was heard by more people and that gained him his own afternoon slot.
In 1972 he took over BBC Radio 2’s Breakfast show and this is where things took off, he got up early and would be the voice that we woke up to in the morning to, he was that personal touch as he used his personality instead just reading out what he was supposed to. He then briefly left Radio to do his TV shows where he was able to interview celebrities in his manner and was able to get good answers from them amongst those interviews he was able to interview George Best the Footballer whilst said person was drunk, Chevy Chase the amazing comedy actor who spent almost the entire time in silence. During that time he also did the voice over for a TV series Stoppit and Tidyup which was an children’s animated show of characters who lived in the land of ‘Do as You’re Told’. One of the shows where in his way he managed to light heartedly rip apart the celebrity guests was Blankety Blank a show where the celebrity guests fill in a blank and the contestants have to pick an answer and if they have the most celebrities guessing it can win.
In the early 90’s he returned to breakfast Radio and there he gained a massive audience whilst he was there he had the most popular show in history at that point. I used to love listening to his show as he was relaxed and human which made it so much easier to listen to. He had his TOG’s and TYG’s TOG’s being Terry’s Old Geezers/Gals and TYG’s being Terry’s Young Geezers/Gals which generally where the children made to listen by their parents, but they too would call or email into the show. He was also able to adjust to the times and was using email for his listeners to join in with him before we had Tweeter and all that media that is used a lot today. He was popular because with a radio show with 9 million listeners, he always presented it like he had only one, like he was talking to you, which is what made him loved, that human element.
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A lot will remember him for Being the face of Children in Need with the voice, personality and charm that helped us to raise enormous amounts of money for charity which was aimed at helping children, 2015 was the only year he had not appeared on the programme since it was launched.
The main thing I loved was when he used to do the voice over for the Eurovision song contest, he was able to make watching it more bearable as he took the micky out of the more wacky acts and you found yourself laughing along with him instead of having a ‘What on Earth!’ moment.
Waking up to hear this news has hit many people hard and celebrities who have worked with him or have been interviewed and on his shows are tweeting and calling into the news shows to tell everyone a story about how Sir Terry Wogan has touched their lives and influenced how they have progressed their career, as he was able to adjust to the times and keep popular in every decade he was working in, which for some people is really hard to do.
Eamon Holmes on Sky News this morning said a quote that does stick with you “Anybody that reads a script can be replaced, but if you do it Terry’s way and you be yourself you are much harder to replace and he is irreplaceable!”
Dermot O’Leary on twitter has said “Sir Terry. Just the most warm hearted. Generous, funny, clever, life affirming man. Part of the foundations of @BBCRadio2 so very Sad.
For more tweets please head to twitter as this news is trending showing how much he has affected people’s lives and it makes you realise how much TV and Radio can do when it reaches our homes and lives like this.
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In 1997 Terry was on the Queens Honours list receiving an ‘Honour of The British Empire’ and then in 2005 he was made an Honorary Knight.
Sir Terry Wogan is survived by his wife Helen Joyce and his three children Alan, Mark and Katherine. Our thoughts and wishes are with his family at this time.
