Sir Terry and me

Wake up to Wogan news this morning. I'm not sure what his other listener will be doing to mark the sad passing of the great raconteur but my thoughts are with the current Lady Wogan and the rest of the family.

Sir Terry may well have been doing the Radio 2 Breakfast show for longer than even I could remember. I must apologise for in my rebellious youth listening to those young upstarts on Radio 1 or even Virgin (although that voice sounds awfully familiar with my Radio 2 wake up no).

When I was driving into Edinburgh for a decade of work it was always Sir Terry who accompanied me, up until the morning that he bade us, both me and the other listener, that emotional farewell. But of course he also twice a year formed two televisual highlights of the year.

The first of course was accompanied by a six foot teddy bear with a spotty bandana over his bad eye. The millions of pounds he raised as part of Children in Need over 35 years is his greatest legacy, so much so that when he reached the limit for years he could serve as a Trustee of the charity he was made a life President so he could still be involved in the board.

The second was the running commentary (as the wine flowed) of Eurovision and more and more proposterous voting led to a result that more often than not didn't reflect well on Royaume-Uni. Indeed so much was Terry an essential part of Eurovision that on the one year that my partner was in Berlin on the evening with me in Scotland we spent the whole show on the phone, just so that Terry's commentary could be shared.

He was also of course part of the revamp of the mid 80s BBC evening schedule hosting his chat show Wogan three days a week in the slot he shared with a certain little show called Eastenders, I wonder whatever became of that show. Also for a while Sir Terry held a sporting record for the longest televised putt in golf when he holed a whopper at Gleneagles on Pro Celebrity Golf.

This is it then. The day we've been dreading. When we will no longer be able to wake up to the knowledge that Sir Terry Wogan is in our world and will at some point make us smile again. Wogan Towers will be a little lot quieter in the future with his passing.

Sir Terry Wogan 3 Aug 1938 - 31 Jan 2016

Radio Debates in Forth Valley

Central FM 103.1 Forth Valley's local radio station is holding radio debates for main candidates together from Linlithgow and East Falkirk, Falkirk County, Ochil and South Perthshire and Stirling. They are looking for the people to pose questions which you can email to news@centralfm.co.uk

I've been invited to a pre-recording for the Linlithgow and East Falkirk candidates on Thursday I will let you know the air time of the programme as soon as I know.

But you've seen the TV debates on the national stage now you can look forward to the radio debates for your local candidates, the people who want to be your next MP.

200 Years Seems Like Just a Minute

21 years ago this summer I was heading overland from Belgium to Keiv. We had an RAC route list to get us along the way. I was too young to be insured on the minibus with the rest of the team so did most of the navigating.

As we were heading through Poland approaching the village of Żelazowa Wola I started to hum this.



The reason was that the list of directions of course indicated that we were approaching the birthplace of Fryderyk Franciszek Szopen, better known by the French version of his name Frédéric François Chopin. He was of course famous for more than just the Minute Waltz but it is a good way to pay tribute to him as it fades away to look at some classic minutes from the show that has used his music as its intro for years.

So Paul Merton, the subject on the card is Su doku.



Clement Freud as the wordsmith talking about his favourite words



But of course the show is forever remembered for Kenneth Williams so here is his debut back in 1968.

The Subject on the Card is Sir Clement Freud

I see today the sad news that Sir Clement Freud the former Liberal MP and panelist on Just a Minute has passed away aged 84. I shall attempt to pay tribute to the man in that length of time without deviation, repetition or hesitation as seems fitting so to do.

He was erudite in the extreme and looved* to fill the period against three others under Nicolas Parsons with lists. When he would rattle off compendia of foods, animals, places, things, people that were relevant to the subject on the card. His Grandfather of course was Sigmund Freud and what the great psychologist would make of his grandson's pursuant for revealing his encyclopedic knowledge is unknown.

He was at various stages a Member of Parliament for the party of my ilk, celebrity cook, journalist, amateur jockey, and Liaison Officer at the Nuremberg trials as well as the raconteur of note as mentioned previously.

I believe I was still typing as the whistle went. Do I deserve the bonus point?

Clement Freud 1924-2009

*By the way I've just spotted this typo but have decided to keep it in as a tribute to that other JAM raconteur the late Kenneth Williams.

The New Generation's Radio 1 Ban

Every generation of teenagers needs one. That song that just pushes the boundaries of a Radio one sensitivities just that little too far and ends in a ban. For my generation it was of course Mike Read taking exception to Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Relax. I had one friend at school who ended up buying every single mix of it when they came. Hardly surprising then than the record, which at the time of the ban was heading down the charts went back up to the number one spot, nor that my friend ended up working for MTV for a spell.

So this generation have now got Scott Mills and the song Ass to Ass which features in the fictitious show to find a new member for the band SexxBombz in the E4 drama Skins. Well Mills actually appeared as himself on the show as one of the judges of the show and was going to to play the song on his drive time show when some of the stars guested. But Radio One producers apparently got cold feet.

No doubt the song which is available as a download will now soar up the charts as a result. Some things never change.

If you want you can hear the song and see the lyrics here.

Hat tip to adamdustagheer via Twitter

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue; The Return

When Humphrey Lyttelton died last year a little bit of Radio seemed to go with him, for 'Humph' was the host of Radio 4 anecdote to panel games I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. The show had survived the sad passing of Willie Rushton who along with Graeme Garden, Barry Took and Tim Brooke-Taylor had led us on a merry chase from Mornington Crescent to Cheddar Gorge and to balls too numerous to mention. Whereas Just a Minute who although gradually losing their A-team four (Clement Freud and the late Peter Jones, Derek Nimmo and Kenneth Williams) had always had guest panellists the gang of five had always existed on ISIHAC.

However ISIHAC may be an anecdote to panel games is to take a leaf out of post Angus Deyton Have I Got News for You, as have others, and is to have a rotating chair of Stephen Fry, Jack Dee and Rob Brydon when it makes a return to the airwaves.

We just hope Samantha isn't too put out my the new hosts.

Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Biddy Baxter?

Oh dear Mid Scotland and Fife SNP MSP Chris Harvie has branded BBC's Blue Peter as 'evil' and called Adolf Hitler 'imaginative'.

He branded the 50 year old staple of children's television evil during a tirade against the BBC big earners. Probably in relation to the rigged viewer winner when their lines went down life on air one, and not due to their use of every day things you would normally bin for the makes section. He then compared Lord Reith and Adolf Hitler's use of the Radio medium claiming that Hitler was more imaginative in his use of the medium as a rabble rouser from scratch. Forgive me if I'm wrong but didn't the relative normality of the Reith era during war time give a certain amount of hope to those who lived through those years. As for using media for rabble rousing he's clearly encouraging the CyberNats hijacking of more newspaper comments sections to go off topic on their crusade.

He then rounded on the regulator Ofcom saying, "To leave Scotland in the hands of the present metropolitan munchkins of Ofcom and the BBC is like leaving one's parents watching daytime TV." You could almost hear Mr and Mrs Harvie senior (if still around) turning for the off switch instead of watching Countdown, or allowing the grandchildren to watch Blue Peter making a bunker out of sticky-backed plastic, a margarine tub and a cereal box.

In his defence Harvie said "These people have just taken jests I made completely out of context." Well how does one take out of context what Hitler actually turned German radio use to promoting Nazi propaganda from 1932 onwards to the USA, Europe and the world. It went on to play a key role in the German occupation of Europe. Imaginative it may well have been but destructive also. Maybe Harvie wants to become a modern day Lord Haw-Haw and propagate independence from a big radio antenna on Arthur's Seat.