Terry Wogan

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Sir Michael Terence Wogan, KBE (born 3 August 1938), generally known as Terry Wogan, is an Irish radio and television broadcaster who works for the BBC in the United Kingdom. He has been a leading media personality in the UK since the 1960s. He was born in Limerick, Ireland and educated by the Salesians and the Jesuits at Crescent College in his home city. He is married and has three children.

Because his listeners are often middle-aged or elderly, he jokingly refers to them as "TOGs" (Terry's Old Geezers), and he has become known as "The Togmeister".

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Career

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Early radio presenting

After completing his education he went to work in a bank for five years, before he joined Radio Telefís Éireann as a newsreader/announcer. For two years he conducted interviews and presented documentary features before moving to the Light Entertainment department as a disc jockey and host of TV quiz and variety shows such as Jackpot. Jackpot was the top rated quiz show on RTE in the 1960s, but when the show was dropped by RTE in 1967 Wogan approached the BBC for extra work. He first worked for BBC Radio presenting Midday Spin in the mid-1960s and, on the inauguration of BBC Radio 1 he presented Late Night Extra for two years, commuting weekly from Dublin to London. Eventually, after covering Jimmy Young's mid morning show throughout July in 1969, he was offered a regular afternoon slot (3 p.m – 5 p.m.) — officially on Radio 1, but in actual fact — due to lack of funding — broadcast over both Radio 1 and Radio 2.

In April 1972 he took over the breakfast show on Radio 2, effectively swapping places with John Dunn, who hosted the afternoon show briefly — by then Radio 1 and Radio 2 had diverged sufficiently to allow separate programming on each network. During Wogan's time on the breakfast show, he had achieved audiences of up to 7.6 million. Also during this period he released his own version of "The Floral Dance", by popular request from listeners who enjoyed hearing him singing over the instrumental hit by The Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band.

In December 1984, Wogan left his breakfast show to pursue a full-time career in television. During this time, he was replaced on radio — initially, but briefly by Ken Bruce, followed by Derek Jameson and finally Brian Hayes.

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Moving to television

Wogan is particularly famed for his sardonic commentaries on the Eurovision Song Contest which he has presented annually since 1980, and occasionally in the 1970s. Also in 1980 he began presenting the BBC's Children in Need telethon and continues to front the yearly event.

In 1981 he had a chance to host a one-off chat show, Saturday Live. Among his guests on this show were Larry Hagman — then promoting his new film S.O.B. — and Frank Hall, who was then the Irish Film Censor. During the course of the interview, Hall accused Wogan of selling out his Irishness and, responding to a question posed by Wogan about his suitability as a film censor, said there was more filth on British Television than in film, citing the BBC TV serial The Borgias as an example.

Wogan was given his own, eponymous, chatshow which was broadcast initially on Saturday nights but between 1985 and 1992 became twice and later thrice-weekly. Highlights of the show included interviews with a drunk George Best; a silent Chevy Chase; a nervous Anne Bancroft (who was so petrified she gave monosyllabic answers and counted to ten before descending the entrance steps to the studio); David Icke claiming to be the "son of the Godhead"; and Vivienne Westwood scolding the audience for laughing at her latest collection (although Sue Lawley was guest hosting the show on this last occasion); and Ronnie Barker announcing his retirement on the show.

Other television programmes he has presented:

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Return to radio

By 1992, something of a backlash began against the seemingly omnipresent Wogan. This was highlighted when a poll apparently revealed him to be simultaneously the most and the least popular person in Britain. He was released from his talk-show contract after much pushing by the BBC, and was mocked for some time after this.

In January 1993, he returned to Radio 2 to take back the breakfast show, by then presented by Brian Hayes. As a result, Hayes was moved to a weekend & a Tuesday evening slot.

In recent years Wogan's fortunes have improved. His BBC Radio 2 breakfast show is now the most popular on British radio. His tendency to go off on rambling, esoteric tangents seems to have become popular with younger listeners (however ironically) as well as the older fans.

In 2005 it was reported that his Breakfast Show ("Wake Up To Wogan") attracted an audience of eight million. After he received a then honorary knighthood the same year (see below) the UK newspaper, The Daily Mirror, ran a front page reading "It's Sir Del and It's Sir Tel", this was in reference to Wogan (whose nickname is "Tel") and actor David Jason who's most famous for playing Derek "Del" Trotter in the classic sitcom, Only Fools And Horses. In the same year, however, he broke strike picket lines when he presented his show on May 23, the day BBC staff were protesting over announced job cuts [1]. Reportedly, he gave a thumbs up to his colleagues and wished them all well. He explained on air the reason for doing so - he is contracted to host Wake up to Wogan and hence is not directly employed by the BBC, and could not strike with their employees. According to figures leaked to British newspapers in April 2006 and neither confirmed nor denied by the BBC, Wogan was the highest paid BBC radio presenter at that time, with an £800,000 a year salary. [2]

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Honours

In the Queen's Birthday Honours list of 2005, Wogan was made an honorary Knight of the Order of the British Empire. As an Irish citizen he was initially only able to use the post-nominal letters KBE, however he is now entitled to use the title "Sir Terry" since he has since taken dual British and Irish citizenship. Terry does not use his title "on-air", however, it is often used as a catalyst for listeners' contributions, and BBC Radio 2 dawn patrol (early breakfast) presenter Sarah Kennedy refers to Terry as 'STW'. He had previously (1997) been made an honorary Officer of the order (OBE), which is now subsumed in the knighthood.

In 2004 Wogan received an honorary doctorate from the University of Limerick.

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Trivia

  • Wogan received a mention in the song "The Dark of the Matinée" by Scottish indie rockers Franz Ferdinand. ("So I'm on BBC2 now telling Terry Wogan how I made it and / What I made isn't clear now, but his deference is and his laughter is / My words and smile are so easy now"...)
  • He was also the subject of a 1989 single by A Tribe of Toffs, "Terry Wogan's On T.V. (Again!)".
  • Also mentioned in the box set Divine Madness by British ska group Madness. Track 9 of disk 2 is the "Terry Wogan Jingle" (25 seconds). ("Ter-ry Wo-gan is a blankety blankety blank.")
  • Wogan holds the record for the longest televised golf putt, 33 yards on the 18th green at Gleneagles.
  • Wogan holds the distinction of being one of the slowest people ever in Top Gear's "Star In a Reasonably Priced Car" segment.
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External links

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