Shocked colleagues of Sir Terry Wogan paid tribute to a national treasure and broadcasting legend following his death on Sunday from cancer, which he had kept secret.
The 77-year-old Irish-born radio and TV host, who was the face of Children in Need for 35 years during a career that spanned five decades, died surrounded by family “after a short but brave battle with cancer”, his family said.
He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Lady Helen, and three children, Katherine, Mark and Alan.
Stunned friends, many of whom had no idea he was seriously ill, mourned a man they described as fun and mischievous, the “King of the Airwaves”.
The BBC Radio 2 presenter, whose Wake Up to Wogan and later Wogan’s Weekend shows attracted millions of listeners, was hailed the “finest broadcaster of a lifetime”. His TV successes included his chatshow, Wogan, the quiz show Blankety Blank and Eurovision, which he made his own through a winning combination of wit and withering asides.
He had pulled out at the last minute from presenting Children in Need 2015 in November, and also his weekend radio slot, with the BBC citing back problems and “doctor’s orders” at the time.
Father Brian D’Arcy, a friend for 40 years and presenter of the Pause for Thought slot on Wake Up to Wogan, was one of very few to know death was imminent. Wogan had only recently discovered he had cancer, he said.
D’Arcy spent Thursday with him “to say goodbye … He was quite ill at that stage, and I knew it wasn’t long,” he said.
He told BBC Radio 2: “At the same time, I’m glad he went without a long and lingering illness. It was a short enough illness at the end of the day for him. He came across it very suddenly.”
The BBC’s director general, Tony Hall, described the Limerick-born presenter as a “broadcasting legend”, a “national treasure” and “a dear friend”, as it was announced The One Show will air a special tribute on Monday night.
Longtime family friend and fellow broadcaster Henry Kelly said he was shocked because Wogan had “put it out that he had a bad back … I didn’t know he was that seriously ill. I knew he had been told not to do Children in Need because, as he quipped himself, they don’t want an ol’ fella of 77 standing up for ten hours asking for money.”
Ken Bruce, who worked alongside him on Radio 2 for 20 years, said: “None of us were expecting this, [it’s] come out of a clear blue sky, so it’s really hard to take in.”
Fellow presenter Jeremy Vine said: “None of Terry’s colleagues knew he was ill, certainly not this ill, and I’m devastated this morning to hear the news.” He described Wogan as “just a gorgeous man, a brilliant broadcaster, probably the greatest broadcaster since the invention of the microphone”.
Wogan, who was last on air just over two months ago, on Sunday 8 November, had recently published Those Were the Days, his first foray into fiction, which he had promoted at the Cheltenham literature festival in October, and had presented Proms in the Park from London’s Hyde Park, on 12 September.
In interviews at the time of his book publication he insisted he had no plans to retire, and instead intended to go on for another decade.
Michael Terence Wogan, son of a grocery manager, embarked on a career at the Royal Bank of Ireland before giving it up to become a newsreader and announcer at Irish broadcaster RTE. His big break at the BBC came when he provided holiday cover for Sir Jimmy Young.
He soon had his own breakfast show and for 27 years millions woke up to his Irish brogue. When audience figures surpassed eight million in 2005, he joked: “Hang on. There’s 60 million people in the country, what are the other 52 million listening to?”
He accumulated a huge number of devoted fans, or Togs – Terry’s Old Geezers and Gals. They apparently included the Queen. When Wogan was chosen to welcome her on a visit to Broadcasting House, she said: “I’m a Tog.”
His success was down to being his natural self, said controller of Radio 2, Bob Shennan, who recalled how Jeremy Vine once asked him if he prepared for his programmes. “Terry said: ‘No. I’ll just get out of the lift and I’ll wander into the studio. I’ll open the microphone and we’ll see what people have got to say.’ And that was how he did it. And it was why he was so good.”
Among many highlights in a glittering career, his chatshow interviews with George Best, at the height of the footballer’s alcoholism, and an astonishing interview with former BBC sports presenter turned conspiracy theorist David Icke, who refused to deny he thought he was the son of God, stood out.
President Michael Higgins led tributes in Ireland, with the taoiseach, Enda Kenny, describing him as a man who was “in no small way a bridge between Ireland and Britain”. Northern Ireland’s first minister, Arlene Foster, said he was “a truly fabulous broadcaster” whose “Eurovision coverage was legendary for its wit”. A Eurovision spokesman described him as “without doubt the most remarkable Eurovision commentator in history”.
“Hard to quantify what he achieved, not just in broadcasting, but for the Irish in Britain”, comedian Dara O’Briain tweeted. Chatshow host Graham Norton tweeted: “He made it seem effortless and for a young boy in Ireland, he made it seem possible.”
Chris Evans, Wogan’s Radio 2 breakfast show replacement in 2009 said: ”Can’t put into words how the whole Radio 2 family is feeling”. TV presenter Zoe Ball tweeted: “Dearest Terry Wogan, master of the radio waves, so brilliantly naughty & funny, a true gentleman.”
Former presenter of The X Factor and fellow Radio 2 DJ Dermot O’Leary, who stepped in to present Children in Need, paid tribute on Instagram, writing: “Thank you Terry. For everything.”
Presenter Chris Tarrant described him as “the finest broadcaster of my lifetime”.
A small number of bouquets were left outside his family home in the Buckinghamshire village of Taplow. In Limerick, where he was born, a book of condolence was opened to “a true son of Limerick”.
Wogan was a self-declared atheist, having lost any faith following the death of his and his wife’s three-week-old firstborn daughter.
D’Arcy said he was a true family man. “Anyone who ever went to the Wogan household understands there are no pictures of stars around the walls of his house. The living room is festooned with pictures of children, young and old, grandchildren, family gatherings, food, together around a table, weddings, baptisms, all of those things surround the walls of his entire house. The family was the centre of his life and everything revolved around the happiness of Helen and the family.”
