Terry Wogan: Gathering for ‘former greatest living Irishman’

As the parade of famous faces and grizzled celebrities filed into Westminster Abbey to pay tribute to Terry Wogan on Tuesday, it might have been any other showbiz memorial service.

But within minutes, Wogan’s own voice filled the vast, Gothic building, bathing the congregation in the warm familiarity which endeared the broadcaster to millions over half a century.

The short archive montage began with his commentary on John F Kennedy’s 1963 visit to Dublin for Radio Eireann, describing the motorcade’s turn into Foster Place as if it was a favourite entering the home stretch in the Grand National. It included a clip from Wogan’s inimitable Eurovision Song Contest commentaries, a fit of the giggles during his BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, and his last sign-off to listeners: “Thank you for being my friend”.

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The family of Terry Wogan, (left to right) daughter Katherine, son Alan, widow Helen and son Mark, at Westminster Abbey, London. Photograph: Hannah McKay/PA

When Wogan died on January 31st, aged 77, he was buried after a private funeral service, and Tuesday’s memorial was an opportunity for friends and colleagues to pay tribute to a broadcaster whose bond with his listeners was like no other. In his address, BBC director general Tony Hall said the term “national treasure” was often overused.

“But it’s a phrase entirely appropriate for Sir Terry Wogan. For not only was Terry a broadcasting phenomenon, he also had a personality which captivated audiences, no matter what their age,” he said

“It all began of course in Ireland, where Terry himself said, he didn’t really study very much at school, relying instead on native intelligence and gift of the gab, Limerick style. He admitted, ‘I never had any capacity for preparing for anything. That’s why I’m so lucky to be in a job where I make it up as I go along.’”

Recalling that Wogan was on television almost every evening during the 1980s, presenting the game show Blankety Blank as well as his own talk show, Hall said he would be most fondly remembered by many for his quips during the Eurovision every year.

“My own favourite comes from 2007, when he announced as the coverage began: ‘Who knows what hellish future lies ahead? Actually I do, I’ve seen the rehearsals!’” Hall said.

Wogan’s Irish identity was front and centre during the service, and Limerick mayor Kieran O’Hanlon was the first dignitary to be greeted at the door of the Abbey, followed by Ireland’s ambassador to London, Dan Mulhall. Other Irish guests included broadcaster Ryan Tubridy, musician Imelda May and Fr Brian D’Arcy, a longstanding friend of the Wogan family.

The music included John Rutter's setting of part of St Patrick's Breastplate, The Fair Day from Hamilton Harty's Irish Symphony, and the traditional Irish hymn Be Thou My Vision, and broadcaster Ken Bruce read Yeats's The Song of Wandering Aengus.

Actor Joanna Lumley read a poem she wrote for the occasion with Richard Stilgoe, called For the Former Greatest Living Irishman, which began:

How shall I praise him? Let me count the ways.

I think he was the tops, the cat’s miaow;

For pity’s sake, who else would you allow

To mutter in your ear each dawn of days

Just rambling on, with nothing on his mind?

The poem imagined Wogan in heaven, scripted by the Holy Ghost and entertaining angels and lost souls over their morning ambrosia.

That voice – (an aural newly-ripened peach

That never spoke to all, but spoke to each,

Each one he never met, but made his friend)

Now sounds forevermore, world without end.

Peter Gabriel performed Randy Newman's That'll Do, which Wogan chose as his favourite record on Desert Island Discs, and Katie Melua, whose career the broadcaster had promoted, sang her song, The Closest Thing to Crazy.

Perhaps the warmest tribute was paid by Chris Evans, who succeeded Wogan on the BBC Radio 2 breakfast show. He recalled a heroic, five-hour, multi-bottle lunch at Wogan’s house shortly after Evans started broadcasting on the BBC, followed by a round of golf and topped by a boozy supper at a local Italian restaurant.

When, as midnight approached, Evans suggested getting the bill, Wogan looked horrified.

“Well”, he said. “I never had you down as a quitter’.”

When Evans asked whether he had to prepare just a little bit for the following day’s breakfast show, Wogan gave him what Evans described as the best advice he ever got: “He looked at me and said ‘it’s very simple – they either like you or they don’t’.”