Beloved BBC presenter Terry Wogan dies at 77
LONDON: BBC presenter Terry Wogan, one of British television’s most familiar faces and long-running anchor of its Eurovision coverage, died of cancer yesterday aged 77, his family announced. “Sir Terry Wogan died today after a short but brave battle with cancer. He passed away surrounded by his family,” said a family statement.
Irish-born Wogan had a successful television career, most notably anchoring Britain’s flagship chat show during the 1980s, and hosted a hugely popular radio show for 27 years, retiring in 2009. Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain had lost a huge talent.
“I grew up listening to him on the radio and watching him on TV,” he wrote on Twitter. “His charm and wit always made me smile. “Britain has lost a huge talentsomeone millions came to feel was their own special friend,” he added. Wogan started his career as a banker in Ireland but after five years left to become a radio newsreader, beginning a remarkable broadcast career that was recognised with first an OBE and then a knighthood in 2005.
He began presenting the BBC Radio 2 breakfast show in 1972, helping it become Europe’s most-listened radio broadcast with a combination of smooth Irish charm and a subversive sense of fun. He also hosted BBC TV chat show “Wogan” from 1982 until 1992, presiding over many memorable moments watched by millions of viewers.
They included football legend George Best turning up drunk, former sports presenter David Icke proclaiming himself as “a son of the Godhead”, US actor Chevy Chase remaining silent throughout the interview and music icon David Bowie refusing to cooperate. “David Bowie, well he probably wasn’t at his best when I interviewed him,” he later said. “I thought a solid slap would have helped the situation. I didn’t hit him, of course, but it came close.”
‘Most remarkable’ Eurovision host
Tony Hall, the BBC’s director general, led the tributes, calling Wogan “a national treasure”. “For 50 years Sir Terry graced our screens and airwaves,” he added. “His warmth, wit and geniality meant that for millions he was a part of the family.” Broadcaster and journalist Piers Morgan called him “one of the greatest broadcasters who ever lived”.
Wogan offered commentary on the Eurovision Song Contest from 1980 until 2008, garnering a huge following with his light-hearted cynicism of the kitsch music competition. In an address to Eurovision delegates shortly after handing over the British commentary to fellow Irishman Graham Norton, Wogan criticised countries who voted together along political lines in the annual singing contest.
He told them to stop taking the event so seriously because “everybody knows it is rubbish”. Despite occasionally irritating organisers with his remarks, for instance when he named the 2001 hosts “Dr Death and the Tooth Fairy”, Eurovision yesterday tweeted that it was “deeply saddened” by Wogan’s passing.
“He was without doubt the most remarkable Eurovision commentator in history,” the organisation said. Wogan, born in Limerick in 1938, also hosted popular quiz show “Blankety Blank” and annual fundraising event “Children in Need” for over 30 years.
“Sir Terry has always been at the heart of the Charity,” said the fundraiser. “We will miss him so much.” He even entered the pop charts in 1978 with his version of popular English folk song “The Floral Dance”. A keen golfer, Wogan holds the distinction for sinking the longest ever televised putt, holing from 33 yards during a pro-celebrity tournament. He is survived by three children, another one dying shortly after birth, and wife Helen Joyce. — AFP ADDIS ABABA: UN Secretary General, Ban ki-Moon gives an address at the 26th presidential summit of the African Union on January 30, 2016. — AFP COPENHAGEN: A performance at Copenhagen’s Royal Theatre faces an unusual problem: The stars of the show-sold out in advance — could face deportation before the final curtain falls. In “Uropa-An asylum-seekers’ ballet”, six migrants tell their stories with the help of dancers from the Royal Danish Ballet, hoping to change perceptions of refugees in a country that has recently rolled out some of Europe’s strictest asylum rules.
“The hardest part is, during the rehearsals, to speak about your own issues... without showing any feelings,” said Salam Susu, a 32year-old PhD student in musicology from the Syrian city of Homs. Disco funk music and ballet moves are mixed with harrowing tales of persecution and rape in the performance, which opened just days after Danish lawmakers voted to allow police to confiscate valuables from refugees and delay family reunifications by three years.
With few props on stage, dialogue and dance are at the centre of the English-language play, which opened on Friday and runs for three weeks. Although the script involves Susu and her partner, a music teacher, describing how their lives descended into chaos as Syria’s civil war escalated, they say rehearsals helped take their minds off the nagging uncertainty that permeates life in an asylum centre.
Three days before the opening of “Uropa”the title being a play on the Danish words for unrest, “uro”, and Europe-they were finally told that their applications for asylum had been accepted. “It’s crazy, I cannot believe that before the premiere we had our asylum,”Susu laughed.
Shrinking cast
Others have been less fortunate since an original lineup of 10 were recruited last year: Two cast members have had their asylum applications rejected and one person has gone into hiding. A fourth asylum seeker, Mahyar Pourhesabi from Iran, was sent to France under the Dublin Convention, which requires asylum seekers to have their requests processed in the first EU country where they arrive.
In a segment of the play he appears to be sitting in an Internet cafe, speaking to the audience via a video link about living on the streets of Paris and sleeping in airports and train stations. “The asylum system here is not working well at all,” he says. Director Christian Lollike said there was no guarantee the remaining cast of six wouldn’t be decimated further, but maintained that using real migrants on stage was an essential part of the show.
“The meeting of their ‘real’ presence and the dancers, these two languages, when they meet that’s when something new is happening,” he said. Lollike has previously cast maimed Danish war veterans in a “war ballet”, and he courted controversy in 2012 by staging a play based on the manifesto of Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik.
“I’m hoping that people will have another view on what is an asylum seeker... And I (would) like the refugees to speak for themselves and to tell them how they have experienced coming to Denmark and meeting the Danish system,” he said.
Changing perceptions
In one scene the actors echo some of the main arguments used by Danes who want to curb immigration. “How much tolerance can we afford?” asks Ali Ishaq, a 45-year-old gay man from Pakistan. “Shall we tolerate these migrants who prevent their children from going to state schools? Or who force their women to dress or behave in a certain way?”he says. — AFP