Wogan

When I was a child, I recall that every morning we sat in the kitchen eating breakfast cereal.  My mum had BBC Radio 2 on in the background and Terry Wogan was the host. In the late-1970s Radio 2, was a very different sounding station than it is today. This was the time of  Wogan’s first period on the breakfast show which ran from 1972-1984 and his Floral Dance era. 

In 1985 Michael Grade overhauled BBC1 television’s early evening schedule. EastEnders was introduced on Tuesdays and Thursdays and, on the other three days a week, Terry’s chat show, Wogan, aired.  It became a staple of our early evening television viewing.  I guess, at 15 or so, I would have been waiting for the pop act that often appeared in the show. I do recall not knowing who many of the guests were. 

These Wogan branded mugs have been sitting in my cupboard for years. I must have acquired them on a childhood trip to London in the mid-1980s. I recall that there used to be a BBC Shop near Broadcasting House on Regent’s Street and I may have bought them there as it would have been on my wish list to visit. I imagine it would have been the heyday of the chat show and that there would have also been lots of EastEnders merchandise around too. This is what I opted for.

I doubt they are a collectors item - or anything like that - but I don’t really want to use them because they not replaceable.  But in the spirit of cataloging my House Inventory I thought they would be today’s picture. 

In later life Terry Wogan suggested the the ending of the chat show, on 3 July 1992, was handled badly by the BBC. They replaced his chat show with a soap opera about Brits living in Spain, Eldorado, which was a bit of a failure and only ran for a year.  Terry, himself, returned to the Radio 2 breakfast show and, for many years, had the most listened to show on UK radio.