Terry Wogan's 36th Birthday

Posted 01.02.2016

Yesterday 31st January 2016 I wrote my Blip entry in the early afternoon and started off with a strange British Isles expression that may sound strange to the Germans where I now live. 

It was "Top of the morning", a phrase I probably haven't used for 30+ years and from memory was never one of my standard greetings. No idea why I used it. Then at 23:45 that evening, I switched on the TV to find out what Sky News Newspaper Review was showing as the latest UK goings on. I then heard of Terry Wogan's death.

Obviously very sad news to hear one of those who accompanied you on part of life's journey has gone. I wasn't a devotee but if I was tuned to BBC Radio 2, I was always pleased when Jimmy Young ended and Terry did his stint. I was more into Kenny Everet, Noel Edmunds and back in 1974 with Capital Radio. Terry Wogan was, however, a guarantee for a laugh at some point in his radio show and generally, he was a "normal", cheerful guy and he deserved the success and recognition he got. Another person who leaves with a + on his account, one of the few of his contemporaries in broadcasting and entertainment that can claim this.

The Blip is a scanned postcard of the restaurant then called "The Summit Restaurant", now "The Heights Restaurant" at the top of the St. George's Hotel in Langham Place (Regent St), London where I worked from August 1974 until November 1975. I will fill in the details another day. The hotel is next door to the BBC Broadcasting House HQ and Terry Wogan often used the restaurant. On a few occasions, I got as close as nodding a head in his direction when he walked by into the hotel lift. He made no fuss and one would never have known he was anyone special.

The reviewer on Sky News recounted several interviews with Wogan and said they were all held in the Restaurant. So as a small tribute to a good man, I have posted this to his birthday. It's not him in the photo. The day was possibly my 3rd day at work, I haven't yet tracked down my contract.