Wogan, his family and Terry’s old geezers and gals
HIS unforgettable voice flowed mellifluously from our radios for half a century.
Yesterday Sir Terry Wogan’s famous brogue echoed around Westminster Abbey, bringing joy and sadness to a star-studded congregation there to pay tribute to the much-missed broadcaster.
Recorded snippets of his voice included his poignant farewell as he signed off from his Radio 2 breakfast show, telling the loyal listeners he called his ‘Togs’ –Terry’s Old Geezers or Gals: ‘Thank you for being my friend.’
By turns funny and solemn, the hour-long service captured the good-humour and humanity which made Sir Terry, who died from cancer in January aged 77, so widely loved.
His widow Helen – ‘the present Lady Wogan’ as he affectionately referred to her on air – was accompanied by their children Alan, Mark and Katherine.
They paid tribute to their father’s ‘love of our mother, his children and grandchildren’, ‘his true understanding of charity’, his ‘empathy and selfless wisdom’ and his ‘warmth and humour, his gentleness and his love of people’. Chris Evans, who took over the Radio 2 breakfast show from Sir Terry in 2010, led the tributes, saying he gave him the ‘most useful piece of advice in my career’.
He had been invited to Sir Terry’s Buckinghamshire home in 1995 after landing the job as host of the rival breakfast show on Radio 1. After lunch accompanied by ‘white wine, red wine,
port and brandy’, they played golf then went to an Italian restaurant for dinner.
As midnight approached, Evans suggested they get the bill, and asked about preparing for the following morning’s show.
‘He looked at me as if I’d lost my mind,’ Evans said. ‘He said, “It’s very simple – they either like you or they don’t”. Of course, he was right.’ Joanna Lumley read a poem, cowritten with songwriter Sir Richard Stilgoe and called For The Former Greatest Living Irishman. It compared Sir Terry’s voice to an ‘aural newly-ripened peach/That never spoke to all, but spoke to each’.
BBC Director General Lord Hall praised the ‘indispensable TV voice’ of the Eurovision Song Contest, adding: ‘The phrase “national treasure” is often over-used. But it’s a phrase entirely appropriate for Sir Terry Wogan.’ Radio 2 host Ken Bruce read WB Yeats’ poem The Song Of Wandering Aengus.
Katie Melua sang The Closest Thing To Crazy, while Peter Gabriel performed That’ll Do. Stars attending the service, which also marked the 50th anniversary of Sir Terry’s first radio broadcast for the BBC, included Chris Tarrant, presenter Judith Chalmers, actress June Whitfield, DJ Steve Wright and comic Jimmy Tarbuck.
At the end, as the BBC Concert Orchestra played The Floral Dance, Sir Terry’s 1978 novelty hit, many could not resist bobbing up and down to its jaunty tune.
The BBC received 14,000 applications for tickets, with 250 pairs given to the Togs. ‘Chief Tog’ Norman Macintosh, 62, said: ‘It was a lovely service. But it’s yet another reminder that Terry is no longer with us, and that is really sad.’