Sir Terry R.I.P.

[Serial_Apologist]

He never seemed to age...

[Lat-Literal]

Frank Finlay gone today too

The 'social media' end of t'internet goes into a frenzy every time the name of someone of a certain age features in the current 'trends' - e.g. there were panics lately when Sirs David Attenborough and Michael Caine 'trended' ... and a massed virtual sigh of relief when it was realised it was merely because they'd appeared on the Graham Norton Show

This in many ways goes back to the separate thread on Bowie and "overkill" and to PG Tipps's comments about death in the news having replaced sex in the news. It isn't just the internet. It goes broader into news obsessions about terrorism, illness and financial collapse. Whenever I discover in the morning that a well-known person has died it rules out listening to many radio stations for a couple of days. For essentially, if you went walking in the countryside with someone from, say, 9am to 6pm and they mentioned something of that nature every hour or every half an hour or every quarter of an hour you wouldn't go walking with them again. In the media, such things are regarded as routine entertainment.

As for TW, ferney's comments about associating him with schooldays are interesting because it got me thinking where someone would turn today if they wanted a gentle "the world is ok" sounding voice with an element of humour on the school run. Long gone are the days of the Wogans and Ray Moores. Your best bet - and it isn't close - would probably be Radio 4 Extra. Because Chris Evans (loud lad), Petroc Trelawney (businesslike), Andrew Castle (soft jock), Vanessa Feltz (very forward), Nick Ferrari (can sound like a Government Minister), Justin Webb (terrorism, illness and financial collapse) and all the others......none of them do it although together they "are" social organisation and its "culture" in 2016.

There was a time when most broadcasting of whatever content or quality sounded reasonably solid and, dare one say it, professionally mundane rather than pushy, very obsessive, hysterical and shrill to the point of having undercurrents of the distinctly intimidating. A key point is many "trending" on the internet are of an age where they know no other way.

[Serial_Apologist]

Just going by what I hear every morning on Today, there's a lot in what you say, Lat.

[Lat-Literal]

Just going by what I hear every morning on Today, there's a lot in what you say, Lat.

Many thanks.

I don't want to divert this thread. There are many factors, not least because personal perspectives change in older age, but the 1970s when Wogan made his name on the BBC did represent a cusp in broadcasting developments. There was a mixture of innovation - a lot of presentation approaches were not tried and tested and hence they were less contrived - and the remnants of what was seen to matter during the Second World War, ie a "steady the ship" emphasis on the news side and calm escapism in most light entertainment.

Competition is what replaced it. The Evans angle is all about competitive rush from the earliest ages, R3 competes with CFM for audiences, and Radio 4's Today while retaining something of balance has an urgency and hype to appease those who believe the BBC should be more commercially competitive. All of it emanates from Governments essentially. It is about what sort of values and drives Governments wish to promote. Some might remember when Derek Jameson took over the Wogan slot not without controversy. I would argue that we are more in a Jameson radio era now. In fact, even light entertainment may have more of an economic agenda than the Today programme of John Timpson's days.

[Old Grumpy]

Not a Radio 2 person on the whole, myself (Humphrey Lyttleton and some other jazz programmes excepted), but I did like his Eurovision commentaries. Here are some examples of his comments.

OG

[EdgeleyRob]

[mangerton]

Poor Pudsey!

I know how he feels. TW was the companion of choice when on my 30 mile commute-by-car in the late 70s/80s. A source of entertainment to four of us all these years ago.

TW, RIP.

While we're at it, here's a thought.

[Pabmusic]

Eloquent.

[Stanfordian]

He never seemed to age...

Hiya S-AP,

Curiously he had more hair in recent years than he had 20 years ago! R-I-P

[Radio64]

As R2 Breakfast Show presenter for much of the 70s and early 80s Wogan was very much of my parents' world and therefore to be kept at a distance! That said we always loved his sardonic wit at Eurovision, and the "pausing" and "silences" technique on his radio show have influenced many over the years.

It was always worth keeping an eye out for the guest pop bands and artists on his TV show in the 80s - see here.



RIP Sir Terry

[Richard Tarleton]

There is a list of some of his trickier chat show guests in The Times today - a drunk George Best, a mad David Icke, Nicholas Cage, Chevy Chase, David Bowie ("I didn't hit him, but it came close"); the BBC news showed an uncooperative Anne Bancroft.

Here, on the other hand, was a master class in getting the very best out of a potentially difficult interviewee - Jerry Lee Lewis, and it's preceded by two cracking songs performed in the studio with his band. At the end, JLL says "Terry, you're a gentleman".

[Roslynmuse]

These little stories were hilarious - they make Samantha on I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue seem tame...

Terry loses it even before the punchline!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tKnsZCELD4

[johncorrigan]

I've found myself transfixed by the outpouring of warmth that has surrounded the Togmeister's death. Whether celebs, colleagues or the man and woman in the street the story is the same...that of a warm, charming, generous man. At work today I heard a man on R2 almost grief stricken, unable to speak, saying he had only ever felt this way before when Diana died. Such a strong sense of loss from people and yet one of fond remembering - jokes, bon mots, gentle advice, good manners, yet usually delivered with a twinkle of mischief.

For me listening and looking over the last day and a half, the funniest I heard was one he delivered during the swine flu scare: If you receive an e-mail warning of the dangers of eating porkmeat, don't worry. It's only spam.

And this from his great friend, Peter Alliss, that of all he achieved outside of family the thing he was most proud of was that putt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41M9JZWakEA

...at the time the longest putt ever captured on TV. Seems like he did nothing but make the world a happier place. Nice way to be remembered.

[teamsaint]

One of my favourite Wogan radio moments was listening to a " Letter" ( were they real ?) he was reading out , of a supposed wartime reminiscence, and the writer claimed that
" I didn't see a banana until I was fourteen, and that was only through the vicars letterbox".

Helpless with laughter.

[Barbirollians]

Sad news - very much the radio voice of my childhood being taken to school .