Very scary Radio Times cover this week, celebrating the 70th birthday of Terry Wogan ("The Togfather" - lost on about 50 per cent of their readers). It's a terrible cover - he's all plastic and sweaty and cartoonish, though not as bad as TV & Satellite Week, on which Simon Cowell looks like he's had a stroke at Madam Tussauds. And it's an old shoot done for UKTV, to boot. So much for exclusivity.
In the magazine, he's done his once-a-year 'the BBC is rubbish' rant, how all TV's awful (I agree with that bit) and more. But really, if it's that bad to be earning £25 a minute, then why doesn't he just retire and shut up about it. Talk about biting the hand that feeds. Give it a rest. Expect the Jean Alexander 'Corrie's rubbish and sordid and I'd never go back' merry-go-round any second now.
Anyway, I hear a bit of his radio show while I'm having my breakfast and I find it harmless fun, lots of people called things like Heidi Vodka, Amanda Hugandkiss and Pat Codd (who's actually real) with their grumpy old men/women observations. His interaction with the newsreaders and others is light-hearted and warm, and you can see quite why he's got such a following. He clearly loves doing the show. But does he think he's got a job for life. As we know no one's indispensible - but perhaps Wogan might prove us wrong.
It's funny because I used to have my breakfast to this show 30 or so years ago. I remember hearing lots of songs you didn't hear on Radio 1 (my personal choice, but forbidden at family breakfast time), which still remind me of the show now: It's For My Dad by Nancy Sinatra, Harry by Catherine Howe, the legendary Kitten In A Brandy Glass-endorsed Daytrip To Bangor, all comedy records and everything the Wurzels ever did, to name but a few. His easy style was the perfect accompaniment to Puffa Puffa Rice and Ski yoghurt. Despite being a stroppy teenager, this I didn't mind at all.
I think of those days as I eat my Activia and drink my two glasses of water. Sometimes he plays a record I remember him playing first time around, and it gives me a warm glow. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
So don't rock the boat, Terry. Shut it. We don't like change.
13 comments:
Feel good......
Thanks Bad Girl!
You know, Terry, if you don't like the way things are going at work, you can always go and have a word with the boss. You don't have to bore the rest of us with it.
That RT feature does have a fantastic picture of him at the helm of Blankety Blank, exchanging badinage with Larry Grayson.
Did you have the Ski yoghurt *on* the Puffa Puffa Rice, then?
No Chris, but it's a combination I like the sound of.
Did you know it's Wogan Week on Facebook this week?
I wish they had used that picture of him on Songs Of Praise or whatever it was earlier this year with his package protruding through his exceptionally tight moleskins for the cover (and Terry chuckling with a little knowing twinkle in his eye).
It was always hot milk and Weetabix for me listening to Tel on Radio 2 in the 1970s.
For some reason, I remember him playing Dance In The Old-Fashioned Way by Charles Aznavour. Probably just before 'Wogan's Winner'.
DIdn't he Fight The Flab, or was that Jimmy Young?
Personally I can't wait for him to Tog off. I find his listeners' 'musings' on last night's TV, the crapness of modern life and Lynn Bowles terrible.
I heard him the other week plugging ANOTHER 'new' album by Eva Cassidy. The woman's been dead for 12 years, how much unreleased stuff is there? So much, I suspect, that she's actually still alive.
Get him off, he no longer fits on there. And, while he's at it, he can take Steve Wright and Sarah Kennedy with him.
Tel 'fought the flab', although I think that was back in his Radio 1 afternoon show days.
When I listened to him, he kept going on about "the DG". I didn't know what the DG was - I assumed it was a special sort of DJ.
And "the poison dwarf", of course.
Sarah Kennedy! Get rid of the ranting old racist! And if they need another woman on the station, I'm happy to get up at 4am!
I'll do it too Clair! Can't stand the twittering alcoholically slurring bat! Mind you - I heard poor Janice Long on R2 the other night - they've put her on the after midnight slot bless her. They should put her down - she sounded exhausted, a little croaky and desperate for bed.
I'm definitely alone in my liking for Sarah Kennedy. While I think she's a hideous old right wing windbag with an obvious fondness for the sauce, I actually find her quite amusing, albeit in a laughing at her way.
I might blog separately about this.
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