My battle to open sardine tins, by Wogan
TERRY Wogan has struck a blow for his ‘Old Girls and Geezers’ with an attack on today’s awkward packaging.
The 74-year-old broadcaster says his generation faces a daily battle to open certain foods and household items.
Among the most troublesome pieces he lists on the new series of BBC1’s Room 101 are perilous sardine tins and toothbrushes enclosed in fortress-like plastic.
Discussing the pet hate with host Frank Skinner, he said: ‘It’s food packaging in particular – with sardines or pilchards in a tin you put your finger in the ring thing, dislocate your finger and break your nails.
‘Then the damn thing comes away and you’ve got to get a tin opener anyway, all for a sardine. Then there are those bottles where you have to press down the top before you can open them…’ The kitchen isn’t the only place in the house Sir Terry faces the perils of packaging. He said: ‘Taking things further it becomes very difficult to open things when you get to my distinguished age. Has anyone tried to break into a toothbrush lately?
‘You’re in the bathroom and you think, “I’ll restore my dentures to their pristine glory”. I’ve got a new toothbrush here but can I open it?’
During the programme, which will be broadcast later this month, Skinner is far from sympathetic, telling him: ‘It’s made me realise why old people get up so early.’
With a career spanning five decades in showbusiness, Sir Terry has no retirement plans. Earlier this year he presented seven hours of live TV for the BBC’s Children in Need and still has his own Radio 2 show Weekend Wogan.
Sir Terry’s rant on packaging comes just weeks after he urged diners to protest at the food provided by some five star establishments.
Recalling a recent Lord’s Taverners lunch at Grosvenor House, he described the turkey as ‘an indefinable lump of rolled white meat that could have been anything’.
He added: ‘It was served with sprouts like bullets, soggy potatoes and a bread sauce that would have been at home on a plasterer’s tray.’
According to latest research, more rubbish goes to landfill in Britain than in any other European country. A law on excess packaging – introduced in 1 – says packaging should be limited to ‘the minimum adequate amount’ to ensure safety and hygiene.