Sir Michael Terence
"Terry" Wogan KBE DL (born 3 August 1938) is a veteran
Irish radio and television broadcaster
and comedian, who has worked for the
British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom
for most of his career. With a regular 8
million listeners, he is the most listened to radio broadcaster of
any
European nation.
He began his career at
Raidió TeilifÃs Éireann
where he presented shows such as Jackpot
in the 1960s.
Wogan has been a leading media personality in the UK since the late
1960s and is often referred to as a
"national treasure" of the United Kingdom.
He is perhaps best known in the United Kingdom for his
BBC 1 chat show
Wogan,
for his work presenting
Children in
Need, as the host of
BBC Radio
2's breakfast show
Wake Up to
Wogan (which he will leave after December 2009, when
Chris Evans, the Radio 2
Drivetime host, will take over), and as the BBC's
commentator for the
Eurovision Song Contest from
1980 to 2008. When Chris Evans takes over the breakfast show, Terry
Wogan will have a brand new primetime weekend show on Radio
2.
Early life
Terry
Wogan, the son of a grocery store
manager in Limerick
, was
educated at the Jesuit school of Crescent
College
from the age of eight. He experienced a
strong religious upbringing, later commenting that "There were
hundreds of churches, all these missions breathing fire and
brimstone, telling you how easy it was to
sin,
how you'd be in hell. We were brainwashed into believing." Despite
this, he has often expressed his fondness for the city of his
birth, commenting on one occasion that "Limerick never left me,
whatever it is, my identity is Limerick."
At the age of 15,
after his father was promoted to general
manager, Wogan moved to Dublin
with his
family. Whilst living in Dublin, he attended Crescent
College's sister school, Belvedere College
. He participated in amateur dramatics and
discovered a love of
rock music. After
graduating from Belvedere in 1956, Wogan began a career in the
banking profession.
He later joined the national broadcaster of
Ireland, RTÉ (Raidió TeilifÃs Éireann) as a newsreader and announcer, after seeing an
advert in a newspaper advertising announcer positions.
On 25 April 1965, Wogan married Helen Joyce, with whom he has three
children: Alan (born 1967); Mark (born 1970); and Katherine (born
1972), married to The Hon. Henry Cripps (the eldest son of
Michael Cripps, 5th Baron Parmoor).
Wogan and
his wife currently live in Taplow
, Buckinghamshire, England
.
Radio work
Early career
Wogan conducted interviews and presented documentary features
during his first two years at Raidió TeilifÃs Éireann, before
moving to the light entertainment department as a
disc jockey and host of TV
quiz and
variety shows
such as
Jackpot, a top rated quiz show on RTÉ in the
1960s. When the show was dropped by RTÉ TV in 1967, Wogan
approached the BBC for extra work.
He began working 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
.
After covering
Jimmy
Young's mid-morning show throughout July 1969, he was offered a
regular afternoon slot from 3 to 5 p.m. This was officially on BBC
Radio 1, but lack of funding meant that it was also broadcast on
BBC Radio 2.
In April 1972, he took over the
breakfast
show on BBC Radio 2, swapping places with
John Dunn, who briefly hosted the
afternoon show. By this time, Radio 1 and Radio 2 had diverged
sufficiently to allow separate programming, and Wogan enjoyed
unprecedented popularity, achieving audiences of up to 7.6 million.
His seemingly ubiquitous presence across the media meant that he
frequently became the butt of jokes by comedians of the time, among
them
The Goodies and
The Barron Knights. Wogan was eminently
capable of self-parody too, releasing a vocal version of the song
"
The Floral Dance" during this
time, by popular request from listeners who enjoyed hearing him
sing over the
instrumental hit by the
Brighouse and Rastrick
Brass Band. His version reached number 21 in the
UK Singles Chart. A follow-up single,
entitled "Me and the Elephant", and an eponymous
album were also released, but did not
chart.
In December 1984, Wogan left his breakfast show to pursue a
full-time career in television. He was replaced on radio by
Ken Bruce, followed shortly afterwards by
Derek Jameson and finally
Brian Hayes.
Return to radio
In January 1993, he returned to BBC Radio 2 to present the
breakfast show, now called
Wake Up
to Wogan. His tendency to go off on rambling, esoteric
tangents, often including banter with his then producer,
Paul Walters, seems to have become popular with
both younger and older listeners. The show is highly interactive
with much of the entertainment coming from letters and emails sent
in by listeners (many of whom adopt punning pseudonyms, such as
Edina Cloud, Lucy Lastic, Mick Sturbs or Hellen Bach, for the
purpose) with an often surrealistic bent. One memorable occasion
involved Wogan reading out an email from someone using the name
"Tess Tickles", without realising what the name was referring to,
prompting Paul Walters' standard reply in such situations - "I only
print 'em!"
As his radio show was perceived to attract older listeners, Wogan
jokingly refers to his fans as "TOGs", standing for
Terry's Old
Geezers or
Terry's Old Gals,
whilst "TYGs" are
Terry's Young Geezers/Gals who he jokes
are forced to listen to him because of their parents' choice of
radio station. Wogan is referred to as
The Togmeister on
his own programme by himself and members of his production team,
and he refers to the
podcast of his show as
a 'togcast' in keeping with the acronyms described above.
There are also running jokes involving Wogan's newsreader
colleagues
Alan Dedicoat (nicknamed
'Deadly' after the spoonerism 'Deadly Alancoat'),
Fran Godfrey and
John Marsh (nicknamed 'Boggy').
Marsh once told Wogan on air that his wife was called Janet, and a
series of "
Janet and John" stories
followed, read by Wogan during the breakfast show. These are a
pastiche of children's learn-to-read stories but are littered with
humorous
double-entendres which
often lead to Terry and Boggy breaking into uncontrollable
laughter. Four CDs, the first with fourteen stories, the second
with sixteen, the third with eighteen (two never broadcast) and the
fourth with eighteen, have been sold by listeners in aid of
Children in Need, and have raised
an enormous amount for the campaign (to date: over £3 million from
all sales of related TOG/TYG products).A long-running campaign by
Wogan criticising the British government for levying VAT on these
CDs eventually led to a government rebate of £200,000.
Another famous stream is Terry’s banter with “the Totty from
Splotty “ –
Lynn Bowles, the Welsh
traffic reporter from Splott, Cardiff – which often involves
reading Limericks from listeners cut short after 1 or 2 lines as
the risqué innuendo is telegraphed.
Through his show Wogan is also widely credited with launching the
career of singer
Katie Melua after he
repeatedly played her debut single, "
The Closest Thing to Crazy", in
late 2003. When she performed on Children in Need in 2005, Wogan
jokingly said to Melua, "You owe it all to me, and maybe a little
to your own talent". He has, however, made no secret that the
credit for discovering her lies with his long time producer, Paul
Walters.
In 2005, it was reported that his breakfast show
Wake Up to Wogan attracted an audience
of eight million. According to figures leaked to British newspapers
in April 2006, Wogan was the highest paid BBC radio presenter at
that time, with an £800,000 a year salary. In an interview with
Britain's
Hello magazine in
its 30 May 2006 issue, Wogan confirmed this, saying, "The amount
they said was true and I don't give a monkey's about people knowing
it. Nor do I feel guilty. If you do the maths, factoring in my
eight million listeners, I cost the BBC about 2p a fortnight. I
think I'm cheap at the price".
On 23 May 2005, Wogan broke strike
picket
lines to present his show. The strike by BBC staff was a
protest over announced job cuts. Reportedly, he gave them a smile
and wished them all well. He explained on air that the reason for
doing so was that he is contracted to host
Wake up to
Wogan and hence is not directly employed by the BBC, and so
could not legally strike with their employees.
Wogan was forced off air on 16 February 2007 when steam from a
nearby gym set off fire alarms. For 15 minutes an emergency tape
played non stop music. On returning, Wogan read out several light
hearted comments from listeners saying that they thought he had
died with his sudden disappearance and the playing of such
sentimental music.
On 7 September 2009, Wogan confirmed to his listeners that he would
be leaving the breakfast show at the end of the year with
Chris Evans taking over.
The Times published an ode to
Terry: "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone. Terry Wogan is
abandoning his microphone", and novelist
Allison Pearson commented: "Heard the one
about the Irishman who reminded the British of what they could be
at their best? His name was Terry Wogan."
Television work
Children in Need
Wogan first appeared for
Children in
Need in 1978 during a five-minute appeal on Christmas Day, and
repeated this in 1979. In 1980, the appeal was first broadcast as a
telethon with Wogan presenting alongside
Sue Lawley and
Esther Rantzen. Wogan has been the presenter
of this annual event ever since.
He has campaigned extensively for the charity and often involves
himself via
auctions on his radio show, or
more directly by taking part in well-publicised sponsored
activities. The BBC Children In Need 2006 programme trailer
featured Wogan in a wrestling ring, supported by various television
personalities. His opponent (Ken Bruce) appeared confident in
defeating him, until Terry removes his shirt to reveal the physique
of a
bodybuilder. He has since joked on
his BBC Radio 2 programme that the media had got it wrong, and that
his body was superimposed on somebody else's head.
He is reported to be the only celebrity paid for his participation
in Children in Need, having received a fee every year since 1980
(£9,065 in 2005). Wogan, however, has stated that he would "quite
happily do it for nothing" and that he "never asked for a fee". The
BBC stated that the fee had "never been negotiated". Wogan's fee
has been paid from BBC resources and not from the Children in Need
charity fund. There is no record, however, of Wogan ever having
repaid his fee from previous years.
Eurovision Song Contest
In 1971 and 1972 and from 1974 until 1977, and again in 1979, Wogan
provided the BBC's radio commentary for the
Eurovision Song Contest. He became
better known for his television commentary, which he handled first
in 1973 and then again in 1978. From 1980 until 2008, he provided
the BBC's television commentary every year and became famous for
his sardonic and highly cynical comments.
He also co-hosted the
contest, in 1998 with Ulrika Jonsson,
live from Birmingham
. From 1977 until 1996 Wogan hosted the UK
selection heat each year, returning to the job in 1998 and again
from 2003 until 2008. He remained until recently an advocate of the
contest. He earned a reported £150,000 annually for his work with
the contest. His commentating style, which often involved humour at
the expense of others, has caused some minor controversy, for
example when he referred to the hosts of the
2001 contest in Denmark,
Søren Pilmark and
Natasja Crone Back, as "Doctor Death and
the Tooth Fairy". Although many British viewers find his comments
amusing, they are far from being universally liked. The Danes were
less than appreciative and Wogan now jokes that he is banned from
visiting Denmark.
During
the presentation of the Dutch
televote in the Eurovision Song Contest
2006, Wogan called the Dutch televote presenter, Paul de Leeuw, an "eejit", as de Leeuw started to make ad lib
comments, gave his mobile phone number and lengthened the Dutch
results. Chris Tarrant later
remarked that "Terry Wogan's commentary is why any sane person
would choose to watch the Eurovision," referring to his
now-infamous acerbism. .
During the 2007 BBC show
Making Your Mind Up, in
which the British public voted to decide their Eurovision entry,
Terry Wogan announced, wrongly, that the runner-up Cyndi was the
winner. The actual winner was the group
Scooch and, according to the BBC, Terry Wogan had
been provided with the correct result during the live show.
The Contest in recent years, however, has become notorious for a
perceived increase in political voting (an aspect noted for many
years). In
2008 the
UK's entry,
Andy Abraham, came last,
much to Wogan's disappointment. Wogan argued that Abraham "..gave,
I think, the performance of his life with a song that certainly
deserved far more points than it got when you look at the points
that Spain got, that Bosnia-Herzegovina got - some really
ridiculous songs."
Unknown to the majority of television viewers across Europe,
however, Wogan is well-known to many veteran broadcasters across
the continent, being seen as a Eurovision Song Contest institution.
Indeed, at the
2008
contest he was acknowledged by both hosts, and welcomed
personally by name to the show (alongside only two other
individuals from the 43 participating broadcasting nations:
France's
Jean-Paul Gaultier and
Finland's 2007 Contest host
Jaana
Pelkonen).
On 11 August 2008, Wogan said in an interview with national
magazine
RadioTimes that he was 'very
doubtful' about presenting the
Eurovision Song Contest for the
United Kingdom again, claiming it was "predictable" and "... no
longer a music contest". On 5 December 2008 Wogan officially
stepped down from the role after 35 years.
Graham Norton succeeded Wogan as BBC
commentator for the 2009 contest. Norton said during the opening
comments "I know, I miss Terry too."
Chat shows
Wogan's first foray into TV interviewing was with "What's On
Wogan?", which ran for one series in 1979 on BBC1, primarily on
early Saturday evenings. In 1981, he had a chance to host a one-off
chat show,
Saturday Live. Among
his guests on this show were
Larry
Hagman, 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
Irish heritage 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 chat show,
Wogan, which after a trial run on a midweek
evening, was recommissioned for broadcast on Saturday nights from
1982 to 1984. Between 1985 and 1992, the show became thrice-weekly
on early weekday evenings. Notable moments of the series 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,
Ronnie
Barker announcing his retirement on the show, and
David Icke claiming to be the "Son of God" to
whom Wogan famously stated "They're laughing at you - they're not
laughing with you."
In 1992, a poll apparently revealed Wogan to be simultaneously the
most and the least popular person in Britain , and he was
subsequently released from his talk-show contract after pressure
from the BBC. He claims that the BBC also wanted his scheduling
slot for the ill-fated soap
Eldorado. Wogan briefly hosted
"Terry Wogan's Friday Night" in 1993, but this series was not
recommissioned.
In 2006 Wogan presented
Wogan Now and Then, a show where
he interviewed guests from his old chat show as well as new guests,
and for which he reportedly earnt £30,000 per episode. He claims
that presenting the programme was a light relief after so many
years on radio. Wogan also designed the set for his new show,
allowing him to get a better feel for it. He even claims that the
seat he used was designed to support the lower back since he
suffers from back complaints.
In 2008, he hosted a show entitled
Wogan's Perfect Recall.
Terry Wogan at Masterchef Live, London, 2009
Written works
Wogan has published a number of written works, including:
- Banjaxed (October 1979)
- The Day Job (1981)
- Wogan on Wogan (1987)
- Terry Wogan's Bumper Book of TOGs (1995)
- Where Was I?!: The World According to Wogan
(2009)
He has also written two autobiographical volumes:
- Is It Me? (September 2000)
- Mustn't Grumble (September 2006)
A diary was also published:
- Wogan's Twelve (October 2007)
Other appearances
In 1981, Wogan set the world record for the longest successful
golf putt ever televised, which was 33 yards
(30.2m) at the
Gleneagles golf course in a pro-celebrity TV programme on
the BBC.
Wogan has appeared on
Friday Night with Jonathan
Ross in 2004, 2006 and 2007. In an appearance on the BBC
programme
Top
Gear, Wogan managed to become one of the slowest people to
go around the test track as the "
Star in a Reasonably-Priced
Car", a Suzuki Liana. His time of 2:04 was faster only than
Richard Whiteley, who lapped in
2:06. Wogan's time has been beaten by
Johnny Vegas, who doesn't have a driving
licence, and Bosnia war veteran
Billy Baxter, who is
blind.
Other television programmes he has presented:
Wogan also narrated the 1987 BBC television series
Stoppit and Tidyup.
Terry has become the host of the annual 'The Oldie of the Year
Awards' held at Simpsons-on-the-Strand in London on behalf of
The Oldie Magazine.
Honours and awards
Wogan was awarded an honorary knighthood in the
Queen's Birthday Honours in 2005.
After becoming a British citizen that year, the knighthood was made
substantive on 11 October, 2005, allowing him to use the style
"Sir. He received an honorary
OBE in 1997. On 29 May 2007 he
was made a
Deputy Lieutenant of
Buckinghamshire.
In 2004, he was awarded a Gold
Blue
Peter Badge.
On 15
June, 2007, his home town of Limerick honoured him with the 'Freedom of the City' at a
ceremony in Limerick's Civic Hall. The Freedom of Limerick
honour dates from medieval times. Because of his long absence from
the city as well as some well remembered, less than flattering
remarks about the city in a 1980 interview, the local press carried
out a
vox pop which resulted in unanimous
support for the award. He has since acknowledged the strength of
character of the local population who "never give up ... never say
die and ... are never beaten." "Limerick never left me" he is
quoted as saying and "whatever it is, my identity is Limerick."
In 2004,
he received an honourary doctorate from from the University
of Limerick
as well as a special lifetime achievement award
from his native city.
Radio 2's Ultimate Icon
Wogan was announced as the Ultimate Icon of Radio 2 to commemorate
the station's 40th birthday. The shortlist of 16 candidates had
been published on the
BBC Radio 2
website and the winner was announced live on Radio 2 during
Family Favourites with
Michael Aspel on 30 September 2007. He praised
his fellow nominees,
The Beatles,
Diana, Princess of Wales
and
Nelson Mandela during his
acceptance speech which was broadcast live on
BBC Radio 2, and he chose
Nat King Cole's
Stardust as his
Iconic Song of the last 40 years, which he had chosen twice before
as his favourite record on
BBC Radio 4's
Desert Island
Discs.
References in popular culture
As a well-known public figure, Terry Wogan has been referred to on
television, in novels, in films, and in music. In the novelisation
of the television series
Yes, Prime
Minister, for example, the fictional Prime Minister,
Jim Hacker, discusses having an interview
with Wogan. To his suggestion that Wogan be given a knighthood to
ensure that the interview went well, his
Private Secretary replied "Sir Terence
Wogan? I hardly think so, Prime Minister."
Wogan is referred to in the song "
The Dark of the Matinée" by
Scottish indie rockers
Franz
Ferdinand. The relevant line goes
"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...Yes it's easy now. Yes it's easy
now!". When Franz Ferdinand played a show in Limerick in 2009,
one Irish reviewer wondered if the band had made the connection
between lyric and city. The British
2 Tone
band
Madness recorded a jingle for
Wogan's show in 1982, which is included in the box set
The Business -
the Definitive Singles Collection. Track 9 of disk 2 is
the "Terry Wogan Jingle" lasting 25 seconds in which the group sing
the line "Ter-ry Wo-gan is a blankety
blankety blank" to the tune of their hit
single "
Our House".
In 1989 Wogan was the subject of a single by the novelty music
group
A Tribe of Toffs, "Terry
Wogan's on T.V. (Again!)".
Wogan is also referred to in 'The Hitcher' episode of the British
comedy series,
The Mighty
Boosh. He appears briefly in the '
Celebrity Vicar'
episode of
The Vicar of
Dibley, another
Britcom,
when Rev. Geraldine Granger (
Dawn
French), is interviewed on Wogan's radio programme,
Pause
for Thought. In March 2008, he had a voice only cameo as
himself in the
seventh
episode of
Ashes to
Ashes, set in October 1981.
As
someone whose career was principally based in the United Kingdom,
Wogan was relatively unknown in the United States
until the release of the 1991 film, The Commitments, in which Jimmy
Rabitte repeatedly does mock interviews with "Terry". Wogan
is also referred to in the
Willy
Russell play "
One for the Road". In this, the
characters play a game called "The Wogan Game" in which they act
out interviews from the show, pretending to be Wogan.
Terry
Wogan has also appeared in the lyrics of Ireland
's Eurovision Song Contest 2008
entry, "Irelande Douze
Pointe". In it, Dustin the Turkey sings "Drag acts and
bad acts and Terry Wogan’s wig..."
A goblin named
The Wogun appears in the webcomic
Scary Go Round storyline "Crock o' Gold" as a
radio/TV talk show host and general charlatan.
In August
2008 the Wolverhampton
pop band "Rang-a-tang" released a single entitled
"Very Terry Wogan", which has been played on-air by Wogan
himself.
See also
References
External links
as the host of the contest (1974)
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