While it may seem to be unseemly to speak ill of the recently departed, the Derek Jameson years can fairly be remembered as the point when the BBC Radio went from a stable of professional and dependable broadcasters to admitting a breed of amateurs and 'personalities', onto the roster.
That he had what it is oft referred to as the 'common touch' cannot mitigate the fact that he was something of a radio illiterate, and that his even less eloquent wife was thrown into the equation merely cemented that impression.
It was a time when the big fromages at Broadcasting House had seemed to lose their marbles and yet we know now it was merely a presaging of what would be about to follow.
Ironically, in the Radio 4 satire, 'Weekending' he had been derided as a Fleet Street veteran of the lowest common denominator, in such choice turns of phrase as a 'man who thinks from the wrist' and someone who thought the word erudite described a brand of fast adhering glue.
To a certain extent it was all the fault of the tea-time tv magazine of the day, Nationwide, which across a week of reports followed his progress as he launched Britain's newest, and at that point, lowliest, newspaper, the Daily Star.
The rest of the media seized upon this 'East End boy made bad' (another Weekending line) and he got his comeuppance for having been unwise enough to come before the headlights of his former Grub Street colleagues.
He could well have followed the example of Liberace and 'cried all the way to the bank', except that the Weekending skit, particularly, rankled with him.
He had a point and fair boast to make, a former messenger boy who had gone on to edit three Fleet Street red tops, but still he placed himself before the courts and invited, more or less, even greater derision.
He lost his case against Radio 4 and had to meet the BBC's costs as well as his own. However, irony of ironies, it was the BBC who in reverse 'we make 'em and we break 'em' mode come to the rescue in the shape of David Hatch, Managing Director Network Radio, with a fat Radio 2 contract.
Indeed, who as editor-in-chief for BBC's radio output was also responsible for 'Weekending'.
Funny times, but then much more peculiar events would could to pass at the BBC. This was only a beginning.
That he had what it is oft referred to as the 'common touch' cannot mitigate the fact that he was something of a radio illiterate, and that his even less eloquent wife was thrown into the equation merely cemented that impression.
It was a time when the big fromages at Broadcasting House had seemed to lose their marbles and yet we know now it was merely a presaging of what would be about to follow.
Ironically, in the Radio 4 satire, 'Weekending' he had been derided as a Fleet Street veteran of the lowest common denominator, in such choice turns of phrase as a 'man who thinks from the wrist' and someone who thought the word erudite described a brand of fast adhering glue.
To a certain extent it was all the fault of the tea-time tv magazine of the day, Nationwide, which across a week of reports followed his progress as he launched Britain's newest, and at that point, lowliest, newspaper, the Daily Star.
The rest of the media seized upon this 'East End boy made bad' (another Weekending line) and he got his comeuppance for having been unwise enough to come before the headlights of his former Grub Street colleagues.
He could well have followed the example of Liberace and 'cried all the way to the bank', except that the Weekending skit, particularly, rankled with him.
He had a point and fair boast to make, a former messenger boy who had gone on to edit three Fleet Street red tops, but still he placed himself before the courts and invited, more or less, even greater derision.
He lost his case against Radio 4 and had to meet the BBC's costs as well as his own. However, irony of ironies, it was the BBC who in reverse 'we make 'em and we break 'em' mode come to the rescue in the shape of David Hatch, Managing Director Network Radio, with a fat Radio 2 contract.
Indeed, who as editor-in-chief for BBC's radio output was also responsible for 'Weekending'.
Funny times, but then much more peculiar events would could to pass at the BBC. This was only a beginning.
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