Terry Wogan (1938–2016)

The making of Terry Wogan, See John run. This is such a witty little book from the Irishman who almost single handedly saved the BBC from boring it’s listeners to death. There is also a CD which will make you cry with laughter. The following is the tale of how it all came about.

The British Government in 1960s controlled the radio airwaves of the nation through their wholly owned subsidiary The British Broadcasting Company (BBC). They totally refused to play any Rock n Roll music and filled the day with The Billy Cotton Bandshow and Mantivani, music from the 30s and 40s. There was no other radio and only the very rich had TV.

This situation created the need for The Pirates. These were small ships at sea broadcasting, quite legally, just outside the British three mile territorial waters. They played the music the nation wanted to hear and as a result were fantastically successful. The public loved them. The BBC did not.

Over time even the BBC eventually noticed their listeners had nearly all defected.

At dawn one morning The Royal Navy appeared, arrested all the pirate radio ships simultaneously, all around the coast, then escorted them into ports. They were charged with broadcasting within the British SIX MILE legal sea limit. When they protested, six miles? Since when has it been six miles? They were told “since midnight last night”. Yes! The British Government, which always takes many years to amend British law, had changed this law (to aid it’s own BBC) overnight.

So The Royal Navy really worked for the BBC? So it would seem. A long time later. after much protest, the BBC were forced to produce a new program they called Radio One. It was a poor substitute for Pirate Radio but it was all there was. It was galling hearing phony BBC DJs proclaiming the success of the channel the public had had to force them to create.

Probably the only good thing to come out of Radio One was Terry Wogan, who's show was very entertaining and included skits about See John run.… (más)

In the writer's own words 'these tales are figments of imagination and youthful experience, tied very loosely together by what might have been'. Terrry Wogan worked in a bank in Ireland before moving, very successfully into radio and later television; his main character in these short tales is Tom who has returned to his home town as Manager of the local bank and during a party to celebrate the refurbished bank reminisces about it's customers and his own life.
Slight stories told with gentle humour which greatly improve after a few early duds.… (más)

Terry Wogan is a well-known radio and television personality who is perhaps best known for his extremely successful show on BBC Radio 2, ‘Wake up with Wogan’. Myself, I know him best as the funny guy who predicts the political point scoring (point rigging) on Eurovision while getting steadily more sloshed and cynical.

When I spotted this in the sale section of my local library I was intrigued. I'd eyed it up in a couple of bookshops over the years, but never been able to bring myself to part with the RRP of £19.99. In fairness, it's a standard price for a hardcover autobiography, but I baulk at spending that much on any book that isn't a textbook with a circumscribed readership. I scanned the first few pages, chuckled a couple of times, and happily lugged the book home, thinking I'd snagged a bargain for £1.

My thoughts

‘Veteran broadcaster Terry Wogan, or ‘Sir Terry’ as he insists on his family calling him, knows very well that ‘veteran’ is a euphemism for ‘clapped out’, and he’d be just as pleased if you’d pack it in…Don’t think you can get away with ‘iconic’ either, because everybody knows that means you’re not just dead, but mummified.’

The inside cover's blurb made me chuckle, as did the first few pages (out loud. In a coffee shop.) This was certainly a promising start, but by the end of the preface I was lost and irritated by what I felt was a lack of apparent organisation. Wogan meandered from one topic to another topic with barely a discernible link. As this is the third instalment of his autobiography, I quickly found myself wondering whether the previous tomes had been more organised. Had he simply run out of new things to say? Of course, radio presenters are skilled in the non-sequitur and famed for their ability to ramble on about almost nothing in a way that is mildly interesting, so I really shouldn’t have been so irked by the style.

Funnily enough, the book appears very well structured if you judge it by the contents page: there is a prologue, 12 amusingly named chapters, an epilogue and an index. Chapters are usually about twenty pages long so there are plenty of appropriate places to pause, which I appreciated. Each chapter has a loose organising principle but develops in Wogan’s usual chatty style, meaning the focus is more on the comic touches than on developing detailed knowledge about events and people. There are several pages of photos, many black and white with some in colour, all of which have mildly entertaining captions. I liked that there was a mixture of personal and more ‘public’ images, suggesting that Wogan really was sharing his history with his readers.

There was plenty of reminiscing about stars which I found quite dull but guess is probably the point of this kind of book. I found the idea of friction between BBC radio and BBC television interesting and enjoyed reading the chapter on Eurovision. The humour was typically "Wogan”: gentle, often self-deprecating and usually ironic. The autobiography also includes a surprising amount of poetry sent in by listeners, including an entertaining rewriting of Caroll's 'Father William'. I found some of these entertaining whilst others had too many ‘in-jokes’ for me to really appreciate them. I felt that this was due to a combination of me being perhaps slightly younger than many of his listeners, and therefore not sharing their reference points, and also the act that I never really listened to his radio shows. In the chapter "Can you hear me mother?" he recounts a speech given to the BBC. This was my favourite part of this book as it is the voice of Wogan I am familiar with: dry, witty, and full of criticism and "gentle guidance" for his bosses at Radio 2. Apparently, it fell on rather red ears, but I wish the whole book had been written in this style.

I rushed through the last few chapters, having decided I wasn't really suited to the book. There were lots of reproduced emails relating to the show, and the other presenters, and bawdy humour followed by a brief epilogue which provided a satisfactory sort-of-finished-but-don't-be-surprised-if-I-eventually-bring-out-another-round-of-memoirs feeling.

Conclusions

Enjoying years of Eurovision because of the dry wit of the presenter does not necessarily create the ideal reader for a full on autobiography. Next time, I will consider my choice of autobiography more carefully as I feel you need to already know quite a bit about the subject in order to enjoy the intimacy and style of such a book. I felt there were too many in-jokes and references that I didn’t understand for this to be really enjoyable, although I found it mildly entertaining throughout. FI don’t think I would read it again, so it is fortunate that this only cost £1 from the library!

I imagine that dedicated fans of Wogan would enjoy this. He discusses his TV and radio work with honesty and a charming self-effacement, covering the significant aspects of his career. He seems to genuinely appreciate his listeners and stresses throughout the book that the audience interaction is what he enjoys. He reprints emails and letters from several regular viewers, who must be enchanted to find their humorous emissions in print. He comes across as likeable and good-humoured, reflecting ruefully on his age and relationship with the BBC. I think this would be an enjoyable read for a fan, although I think the enjoyment would be in remembering and revisiting the past; I suspect there is little new material here (I'm sure he repeats ideas and material even within this book, between chapters). There are no agonising events or traumas of any kind. Deaths are skimmed over. This is a pleasant relief given the current obsession with misery memoirs and grief packed narratives that the publishers seem to stack the shelves with lately.

This is a light and easy read which is unlikely to offend or inspire. Unless you are (or know) a serious fan, I would advise borrowing a copy of this rather than buying it; unlike many books I read, I can't imagine revisiting this one. It is perfectly pleasant to read but utterly unmemorable.… (más)