Best on the Box, December 30th…
Channel 5 celebrate the work and world of Sir Terry Wogan.
The much-missed broadcasting legend began his broadcasting career in his native Ireland before Terry took a chance and headed for the airwaves of radio at the BBC in London. It was the sixties and the Beeb were expanding their output with the arrival of Radio 1 and Radio 2 among others. Soon Wogan was king of the wireless.
It was ATV who offered Terry his first major TV role – as one of the hosts of live weekend entertainment series, Saturday Variety in 1972. Introducing everyone from Larry Grayson to Val Doonican his television ease was there from the start and ATV boss Lew Grade liked what he saw – offering Terry a daily daytime chat show. Lunchtime With Wogan was a hit for the ITV network.
Terry would host several other programmes for ITV across the 1970s and 80s including A Tribute to Morecambe and Wise (ATV) and as a regular judge on the talent show New Faces (ATV). It was however with ‘Aunty Beeb’ on both radio and television that Terry became best known, and best-loved. From ‘tacky’ game show Blankety Blank to Eurovision and charity telethon Children In Need Terry became as much a part of the BBC as Television Centre itself. And with his own long-running thrice-weekly primetime chat show – Wogan – Terry was one of BBC One’s biggest names.
With the help of old friends, colleagues and fellow broadcasters, Channel 5 tonight chart Terry Wogan’s rise from Dublin bank clerk to national treasure. In the documentary there is also a look at his most memorable moments and his love of radio.
Wogan: Now You’re Talking, Channel 5, 9 pm
