Wogan’s charm was that he never took himself too seriously. In one particularly memorable encounter on his 1970s gameshow Blankety Blank, the entertainer Kenny Everett proceeded to berate him for looking like a bank manager. Even if he did look like the straight laced director of your local TSB, he retained that twinkle in his eye. While Everett proceeded to bend in half Terry’s trademark ‘car ariel’ microphone, he quickly bounced off his younger rival presenter with a series of ad-libbed remarks. “They’ll make you pay for that” he retorted as he proceeded to wander road the set talking into the visible folded microphone as if nothing was amiss.
That twinkle, the sharp wit and the curmudgeonly but warm persona that he carried helped him transfer between radio and television with ease. As one of the staples of the BBC’s big annual events, the charity telethon Children In Need, and the Eurovision Song Contest, he was a reliable certainty in life. For millions growing up since the 1970s, Wogan was ever present from Saturday night entertainment, to his early morning breakfast radio show.
Who can forget his observations on Eurovision? While Graham Norton has been a worthy successor, he has been so far unable to fill the great shoes left by his predecessor. He even had the opportunity to host the contest in 1998 (something Graham Norton is unlikely to get the chance to do this side of the twenty-second century). It was the first year that Eurovision winners were selected by mass public telephone voting. Wogan, with typical dry wit remarked on-air: “so, you’ll have no-one to blame but yourself.”
Recently, the BBC repeated some episodes of his eponymous chat show, aired at their peak three times a week in the 1980s. He was a certainly a huge draw for audiences and talent, even resurrecting some careers. Cilla Black was springboarded back into the public consciousness after one memorable appearance in 1986, while the show still retained the moniker Wogan even when Wogan himself was unable to appear. How many other stars have had a chat show named after them when they haven’t even been able to present it?
I’ll always remember one of his forgotten shows. Earlier this decade he made a travelogue where he returned to his native Ireland to see how much it had changed since his youth. It was informative, but above all fun. It felt like you were being taken on a trip by a distant relative just happy to have someone to talk to. Even if he had a huge audience, it would seem like he was talking directly to you, and you alone. Jeremy Vine today recounted an old story, apparently the Queen once asked him “how many listeners do you receive?”, the answer was millions, but Sir Terry just replied “one”.
This is the gaping hole we’re left with now that Sir Terry Wogan has gone. His personal touch, his penchant for the friendly piss-take, and above all his recognisable warm presence. As last year’s Children in Need proved, we’ll notice him most, now that he’s no longer here.
