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Sir Terry Wogan: tributes to BBC broadcaster dead aged 77 - as they happened
This article is more than 8 years old
All the reaction and tributes to the BBC TV and Radio presenter Terry Wogan, who has died of cancer aged 77, best known for his chat show Wogan, the Eurovision Song Contest and Children In Need.
We’re going to end this live blog now, thank you very much for all the touching contributions via GuardianWitness, especially the insights into the world of TOGs.
Sir Terry Wogan seen at An Evening With The Stars Photograph: Jon Furniss/PA
Here’s how the day of tributes to Sir Terry Wogan unfolded throughout the day.
The veteran Terry Wogan has died aged 77, his family announced, in what they described as a “short but brave battle with cancer”.
Wogan had a career spanning five decades, hosting his radio show for 27 years and anchoring a thrice-weekly chatshow in the 1980s, as well as the BBC’s Eurovision coverage and annual fundraiser Children in Need.
Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain had lost a huge talent, and said he grew up listening to him on the radio and watching him on TV.
His Irish counterpart Enda Kenny said the Limerick-born presenter “occupied a special place in British listeners’ hearts and he acted in no small way as a bridge between Ireland and Britain.”
Tony Hall, the BBC’s director general, led the tributes from the corporation, calling Wogan “a national treasure”.
For 50 years Sir Terry graced our screens and airwaves. 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.
Broadcasters from Radio 2 were effusive about the man many said had inspired them to go into radio. Chris Evans, who replaced him on the breakfast show in 2009, said:
We are all so terribly sad upon hearing of the passing of Terry. I can’t put into words how the whole Radio 2 family is feeling.
The first sign that the veteran broadcaster was suffering from ill-health was when Wogan pulled out of hosting his beloved Children in Need last November, citing doctors’ orders. Wogan had presented the show since its inception in 1980, and had planned to host the entire six-and-a-half hour broadcast until 2am.
The broadcaster is thought to have kept his short illness private from many coleagues, with several saying it had been a shock when news of his death reached them. Ken Bruce, one of Wogan’s longtime colleagues at Radio 2, said:
None of us were expecting this, come out of a clear blue sky, so it’s really hard to take in.
Richard Madeley, who had been sitting in for Wogan’s Sunday show on Radio 2, told journalists he had expected the presenter to come back next month. “None of us saw this coming,” he said.
Irish broadcasters and entertainers hailed Wogan as a pioneer for British-Irish relations during the darkest days of the Troubles. “Hard to quantify what he achieved, not just in broadcasting, but for the Irish in Britain,” comedian Dara O’Briain wrote
A wonderful anecdote here about Terry Wogan from Eurovision producer Guy Freeman, on the BBC’s live blog.
Sir Terry Wogan with Eurovision bands Bardo and Bucks Fizz Photograph: PA
My fondest memory of Sir Terry was sitting next to him in the commentary box in Dublin in 1997. Not only was he having a great and hospitable time in his home country, but was also enjoying the rare treat of a scoring sequence that culminated in a UK victory.
As soon as we came off air, with genuine modesty, he turned to me and asked me to please bear him in mind next year, if we were looking for a host. As if we would ever have asked anyone else!!
People watch a news report through the windows at BBC Broadcasting House in central London following the death of veteran broadcaster Sir Terry Wogan. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA
Bob Shennan, controller of Radio 2 and director of BBC Music, speaks to the media outside BBC Broadcasting House Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA
Tony Blackburn speaks to the media outside BBC Broadcasting House in central London following the death of veteran broadcaster Sir Terry Wogan. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA
Morning listeners, TOGs and quiz show contestants have been getting in touch via GuardianWitness to tell their best Wogan anecdotes and their fondest memories of their ‘friend’ on the radio.
Here are some of the most touching tributes:
Wogan's Perfect Recall - Channel 4
Explaining to Sir Terry Wogan the effect of wind when free-fall parachuting; a hamster face! I then went on to lose the quiz show spectacularly. Sir Terry was a true gentle-man, witty and sharp. It was a lifelong ambition by a TYG who became a TOG to meet the man who represented my childhood. I'm so pleased I made it come true. He will be missed by so many, of all walks of life and all political leanings. He, more than any other broadcaster, broke down barriers and became beloved by all. RIP.
Sir Terry
My Grandmother used to keep a radio (or wireless, as she called it) by her bedside. She lived on her own for many years as my Grandfather died quite young and the first thing she did as she opened her eyes was to turn the radio on to the Wogan breakfast show. She used to say that if my Granddad's voice wasn't the first one she could hear, then Terry Wogan's was the next best thing.
So, thank you Sir Terry for making the morning more bearable for her and may you rest easy.
The Togmeister
I was a TOG from the age of 17. He was my hero making me laugh and cry with his wit and wisdom over the years. Joining the TOGS brought me friendship and love. and so much of my life has been shaped by people I’ve met through a shared passion of Wogan. The laughter brought in the morning often made driving to work a hazard. I am bereft this morning. The shock of the suddenness of losing him and thought that we won’t ever hear that cheeky rogue again on live radio or see him making a fool of himself on telly. Farewell Sir Tel. You will be missed.
Saddened on a rare occasion
I do not normally get a little bit choked by the passing of stars from stage, screen or radio but this morning I do feel pretty upset by the passing of Sir Terry.
Why? Probably as he has always been there throughout my life, mainly his voice but in the later years on screen too.
He brings back memories of my childhood, getting up for primary school in the early 1970s and coming down for breakfast. My Dad would be having his cereal and my Mum would be busy rustling up something for us with Terry on in the background. Music, chat, Wogans Wager and Fight The Flab.
Moving on, his thrice weekly shows were always on the TV in our house and his Eurovision stints were something else.
Thanks for the last 45 years Sir Terry.
Sad to hear of Terry Wogan's death
Surprised by how sad I feel to hear this, brings back memories of weekday mornings through my teenage years. Radio 2 was my mum's choice. I would never have admitted it, as I'd rather have been listening to radio 1, but Terry was great company. I remember the Floral Dance and the wobbly bits in front of the mirror. Ah Terry, it's a shame you're gone.
He'll be a huge miss
I've listened for much of my life, watched ditto and looked forward to Children in need every year! He never wavered. Iconoclastic from the earliest days, a constant and self mocking humour anyone could relate to but overall a warmth and humanity which was accessible to everyone and could be nothing but genuine. Farewell feels so inadequate but it's all we have - there will be a great big hole in our lives now where El Tel used to be. Play him out with the Sabre Dance!
Father Brian D’Arcy was one of the few friends and colleagues who shared Wogan’s final days. He revealed how in the early years of Wogan’s career in Britain, he had received death threats because of his Irish heritage.
He had to work through a terrible time as an Irish voice when terrible things were happening in the name of Irish people.
He got threats from various organisations. He lived through it all, he kept quiet.
Fr D’Arcy, a contributor to Wake Up To Wogan for more than two decades, said he had been with Wogan and his family on Thursday, when it was apparent his friend did not have long left to live.
“He was quite ill at that stage and I knew it wasn’t long,” the priest said. “We prepared for the worst, and thank God Terry got out of his suffering.”
Terry Wogan at the family home Photograph: Norman Potter/REX/Shutterstock
It was the death of his three-week daughter Vanessa, Wogan and his wife’s first child, which had been a major factor in his loss of his Catholic faith, Fr D’Arcy said, though the priest had officiated at the weddings of Sir Terry’s children.
Family was the centre of his universe, D’Arcy said.
Lady Helen was the love of his life. If you go into Terry Wogan’s house you won’t see a picture of any star - you’ll see pictures of his children and grandchildren festooned around the walls.
Despite his self-professed atheism, Fr D’Arcy said no one deserved to go to heaven more than Wogan.
He was filled with love, he was filled with charity, he helped so may people in a quiet way.
Honest to God, if there is not room for Terry Wogan in heaven, well then, the God I’ve been preaching is a way off.
He put it into practice, whether he could agree with religious institutions or not is an entirely different thing. But he had certainly a great deal of faith.”
So sad that Sir Terry Wogan will no longer brighten the nation with his wit wisdom and delightful self deprecating humour. A dear friend RIP
The Toggs, Terry’s Old Geezers and Gals, such as King Tog, Helen Bach, Dibley, Lucy Quipment, Ricky T Outhouse and Jo King who met at a Toggs convention, will feel that they have lost family.
Any other broadcaster might have regarded the most obsessively devoted fans in the history of radio as stalkers but Wogan shared their terrible jokes, celebrated their birthdays, ate the cake they sent in by the barrow load, laughed at their misfortunes, sang to their babies, talked to their cats, and beamed from ear to ear as they turned up whenever he opened so much as an envelope.
Terry Wogan on the breakfast show Photograph: Clive Howes/ANL/REX/Shutterstock
The Queen on a visit to Radio 2, and her daughter in law Camilla at a literary reception at St James’s Palace, both outed themselves as fellow travellers.
The Togs were already organising their next annual convention, to be held in Reading next August, and were confident that this year their hero would walk amongst them again: in retrospect it was an ominous indicator when he had to cancel last time.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II meets Terry Wogan Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA
In 2009 on a freezing December morning they gathered on the doorstep of Radio 2, to mark what he announced on air with a wobble in his voice as “the day I’ve been dreading,” his last breakfast show.
Dibley had come by overnight coach from Inverness, others from Yorkshire and south Wales.
As Wogan came out and greeted them with a shout of delighted recognition and an imperial two armed salute, they comforted themselves that he would still be on the air:
“He’s only moving from breakfast time to Sunday mornings, for heaven’s sake. It’s not as if the man is dead,” Lucy Quipment said.”
The Toggs won’t let a little thing like the fact that he has now passed affect their devotion.
Rather than enthuse his children with a love for broadcasting, it was his enthusiasm for good food that seems to have rubbed off on Wogan’s three children.
The presenter always described himself as a “foodie” and just last year he recorded a 20-part television show with London cabbie Mason McQueen called ‘Terry and Mason’s Great Food Trip’ for BBC2, looking at regional British cuisine from Cheshire cheese to a Dorchester garlic farm, trying lardy cakes, honey-glazed dormouse and curries from the Balti Triangle.
Terry Wogan and his wife Helen Photograph: Toby Melville / Reuters/Reuters
In an interview with website BookATable, Wogan spoke about his children’s enthusiasm for food which has seen all of them have some involvement in the restaurant business. His daughter Katherine and her husband own several Berkshire pubs, and son Mark was one of the founders of Covent Garden pizzeria Home Slice.
Of his daughter’s pubs, Wogan said: “My only input is to turn up and sit down at the table once in a while. And we’re always quite critical because we are a foodie. The food thing really comes from my wife, who is an excellent cook. In stark contrast to my mother, who was a terrible cook.”
It is his wife’s cooking that Wogan said he wanted to have for his last meal.
I’d have my wife’s duck in a bordelaise sauce, with her beautifully roasted potatoes. I’m not going to have it with orange sauce, I don’t like that. We have a house in the south west of France where we eat a lot of duck, obviously.
That would absolutely be my last meal… with the crispy skin. I only eat turkey for the skin, and it’s also a great bonus with the duck.
Chairman of BBC Trust Rona Fairhead Photograph: Handout/Getty Images
BBC Trust chairman Rona Fairhead has sent a statement praising Wogan’s commitment to his audiences.
“Sir Terry Wogan was an extraordinary broadcaster treasured by audiences, who made an immense contribution in his long and dedicated career,” she said.
“He will be much missed by millions and all our thoughts are with his family and friends at this sad time.”
Wogan’s home city is to open a book of condolences for the “true son of Limerick”.
Two books will be opened, one at Dooradoyle and another at Merchants Quay on Monday morning, with an online book of condolences at http://www.limerick.ie.
Veteran broadcaster Sir Terry Wogan honoured with the Freedom of Limerick city. Photograph: Kieran Clancy/PA
Limerick Mayor Liam Galvin said Wogan never forgot his roots in the city, which he visited regularly.
Despite his fame and the fact that he was based in the UK throughout much of his career, Sir Terry often returned home to Limerick and never missed an opportunity on radio or TV to speak about his Limerick roots.
The council honoured him with the title of Freeman of Limerick in 2007, which I know was a title that meant very much to him and his family.
Wogan’s neighbour Mark Jones, who runs the Wall Of Sound record label, came to lay flowers outside his home in the Buckinghamshire village of Taplow.
The pair had never formally met, but Jones said Wogan was active in village life. “He was just one of those legends of television and radio that you grew up with,” he said.
A local well-wisher leaves flowers outside the home of Sir Terry Wogan in Taplow, Buckinghamshire Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA
We have been neighbours but I never met him, so I wanted to come and lay some flowers here. It is just one of those things - it feels very strange today.
He has always had that spirit of friendship. He was very communicative and a local supporter, as far as I am aware. It is just sad that we never actually met.
Flowers left outside the home of Sir Terry Wogan Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA
Richard Madeley, who had been sitting in for Wogan’s Sunday show on Radio 2, has been speaking to journalists as he left the studio this morning, saying “none of us saw this coming”
Sir Terry Wogan recording a track for Children in Need at Abbey Road studios in London Photograph: Katie Collins/PA
Madeley said he had expected to see Wogan back in the presenting chair early next month. He praised the presenter’s talent for off-the-cuff broadcasting.
What we realised straight away was there was no disconnect between the Terry Wogan that we saw on the television or heard on the radio, and the real man, none at all.
He would just walk in, shoulder off his coat and start broadcasting without there being any kind of gap.
This sketch by artist Darren Bird -known as Birdie - is being widely shared among Wogan fans. It is a take on the famous Pudsey Bear, the mascot of Children In Need, perhaps the only other character as firmly associated with the fundraiser as Wogan himself.
Terry Wogan’s death was first announced shortly after 9am on BBC Radio 2. Here’s how listeners found out the news the veteran presenter had passed away, with some beautiful tributes coming in from fans within minutes.
One of the Wogan’s regular contributors has got in touch - Kevin Joslin, who goes by the name Mick Sturbs on GuardianWitness.
My memories of Sir Terry
I was lucky enough to know Sir Terry for nearly 15 years, going from a new listener, to a regular contributor to his morning show (under a variety of assumed names) and finally writing the Janet & John stories. On all of the occasions I shared his company, he would always be approached by people who wanted a photo or autograph. Many times this meant standing in the pouring rain patiently while people found their phone or camera. The smile never left his face. I and I suspect a good portion of the nation, have lost our favourite uncle.
We’ve just spoken to him to find out more about his relationship with the programme.
I had been a regular contributor to ‘Wake up to Wogan’ for many years, and a devoted listener for even longer. One morning, John Marsh, one of the regular news team, mentioned his wife, Janet. I learned to read with Janet & John books, so the idea of a parody seemed like a good one.
The stories became a regular feature on the show, and got progressively more smutty (but still broadcastable) as the years went by. Paul Walters, Terry’s late producer, had the idea of recording the stories live and putting them onto CD to sell for Children in Need.
In the end, six CDs were released, which between them raised about £4m for the charity.
Here’s a tribute too from a TOG, “Emma Roid”.
Rip Terry
Sad day, deepest sympathy to his family. Proud to be a TOG. Emma Roid xxx
Here’s what she told us about being a TOG
All TOGS had different nicknames. Mine Emma Roid. One of the other girls was Mother Superior of Perpetual Motion. Hellenbach was another.
Being a TOG was like being part of a big loving family. Everybody looked out for each other even if you had never met them and when you did meet up it was joyful.
I met Terry just the once when we all got together to make a CD at Longleat. I was alone and soon found myself within the welcoming arms of Mother Superior!
Typical of all TOGs who followed Terry’s lead of being kind to all. Perfect gentleman and will be sadly missed by all. I’ve been a fan of his since the first broadcast and whilst not an active TOG, felt always part of the family.
During the morning, many friends and colleagues of Wogan have said his illness was short, and the interviews given by the star during the six months before his death betray no sense that he knew he was unwell. He was promoting a novel and had plans to remain a decade longer in showbusiness.
But in one interview with Event magazine from October, shortly before he pulled out of hosting BBC Children in Need, Wogan does appear to be grappling with questions of his own mortality, and talks about his views on religion and the right to die.
Sir Terry Wogan and his wife Helen. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
My health seems OK, but I am 77 now. Things will go wrong. I am clinging to the wreckage.
Though a self-declared atheist, Wogan revealed that he did still attend mass with his wife.
I don’t believe in God, but when the grim reaper turns up, I may well think, ’Oh, just in case, let me leave an exit door open.’ Maybe I do believe!
Wogan said he would not want to suffer the pain and indignity of a long fatal illness.
I might go to Dignitas, if I was in enough pain and suffering and I was causing a lot of disruption and pain to everybody around me, yeah. I don’t know if I could be bothered getting on a plane and going to Switzerland.
I’m very Irish about that. Can we not do this kind of thing at home? I would have thought it is a basic human right, but it is bound around by religious considerations.
President Michael Higgins has led the tributes in Ireland to Wogan, with Taoiseach Enda Kenny describing him as a man who was “in no small way as a bridge between Ireland and Britain”.
Terry Wogan with his book Wogan’s Ireland. Photograph: Solent News/Rex/Shutterstock
“People in Ireland will remember his early career in Irish broadcasting,” Higgins said.
On his move to Britain his voice became one of the most often quoted, favourite radio voices.
Always proud of his origins in Limerick, he made many returns to his native country for television and radio projects.
His rise to the top of radio listenership in the United Kingdom was a great tribute to his breadth of knowledge and in particular his unique, very personal sense of humour.
Kenny called Wogan’s humour and wit “unparalleled” among his peers. “He graced the top of his broadcasting profession for decades as a reassuring voice on the BBC,” he said.
“His always entertaining, and often unforgiving, commentary of the Eurovision Song Contest provided viewers here and in Britain with endless entertainment.”
