YP Letters: Memories of Sir Terry far from Blankety Blank

The much-loved and much-missed Terry Wogan. (PA).

The recent excellent Radio 2 service, broadcast from Westminster Abbey to commemorate the life of Terry Wogan, this most wonderfully generous and lovely man, has caused me to contribute  my unforgettable memory of him.

Having met Terry in 1983 as a contestant on his show Blankety Blank, I had been subsequently so very impressed by his utter determination to encourage us all to donate to his annual BBC Children in Need Appeal.

Radio listeners were requested to pledge some cash in exchange for either Terry or one of his special guests to achieve an unlikely task.

Knowing how incapable the Irish are of correctly pronouncing any word containing the letters ‘t’ and ‘h’, I pledged a modest sum  if on the air Terry would speak the following sentence: “Thirty thousand thirsty thrushes in a thoroughly thick hawthorn thicket”.

True to his magnificent character he tried his best to do so, yet failed miserably!