Auntie's Secret Past

In Auntie’s Secret Past we learn of the contents of the time capsule in the Broadcasting House foundation stone, the furore over Prospero and Ariel (“maidens are said to blush”), the pithy memos of the Programme Review Board, the “surfeit of sentiment” concerns over Vera Lynn’s Sincerely Yours, why women commentators were not favoured and whether television viewers should be called ‘televiewers’ or ‘lookers’.

This programme, broadcast in 1997 to mark the BBC’s 75^th anniversary delves into the Written Archives at Caversham to bring some of the behind the scenes stories of the Corporation to life. It’s also scattered with a generous selection of Sound Archive gems.

Presented by Terry Wogan and produced by Bridget Apps, Auntie’s Secret Past went out on BBC Radio 2 on Sunday 9 November 1997.    

The Battle for Breakfast on 2

In the battle for breakfast radio listeners (it seems almost obligatory to use the alliterative battle for breakfast beloved of headline writers) many of the major protagonists have moved on in the last few months. Christian O'Connell out at Absolute for new adventures down under. Greg in for Grimmy at Radio 1. Emma Bunton leaving Heart London. Shaun Keaveny making his #BreakfastExit at 6 Music. Over at Kiss Rickie, Melvin and Charlie are moving on to Radio 1. Meanwhile Bauer's new Greatest Hits Radio, replacing the City 2 brand this month, sees Simon Ross at breakfast across England. But of course the biggest headlines were reserved for Radio 2's news that Chris Evans was leaving  'Europe's most popular radio programme' for a new chapter at Virgin and that Zoe Ball was to become the station's first regular female breakfast show DJ.

When Zoe starts next Monday she'll only be the station's sixth breakfast show presenter in over 40 years, a statistic that does, of course, includes the 28 years in which Sir Terry was at the helm. I thought I'd take this changing of the guard as an opportunity to look at Radio 2's breakfast shows over its 50+ year history.

In fact we have to trace the history we have to go back a little further, back to the 1940s.

Early morning sequences of gramophone records first appeared on BBC radio during the Second World War as a way of kick starting a war-weary nation and there were also short sessions of calisthenics billed as Up in the Morning Early with exercises for men and for woman complete with piano accompaniment.  

Radio Times 16 January 1964 with Morning Music offering
a "pleasant background of melodic gaiety" 

Programmes titled Bright and Early and the self-explanatory Morning Music ran on the Home Service and the Light Programme from the mid-40s to the early-60s mostly featuring various in-house orchestras as well as other light orchestras and musical combos. Announcers were on hand to introduce the programme but were little heard apart from the occasional time-check

Recordings of some of these shows can be found on the Masters of Melody website. Listening to them you get the clear impression that the BBC wanted nothing raucous. It was all very civilised and designed to gently wake up the country and get them off to work or start the housework just in time to catch Housewives' Choice.

The big impetus for change was the arrival of offshore pirate radio in 1964 and the gradual shift towards personality-driven radio. The BBC responded in August 1964 with a named announcer assigned to each edition of Morning Music  and the introduction of a record show Family Fare at 8 a.m. As well as the recorded sessions listeners were promised the excitement of "some records."    

The Breakfast Special team in 1965

In October 1965 these different morning programmes were all lumped together in one show, known as Breakfast Special, that ran from 5.30 a.m. to 8.30 a.m. Needletime restriction meant that the bulk of the music was provided by orchestras and groups with the addition of singing groups plus some discs. More chat between items was allowed, even if some listeners didn't appreciate the wisecracks (see below) from the programme presenters who were drawn from the rota of continuity announcers.

Even with the introduction of Breakfast Special the notions of personality radio, familiar voices heard day in and day out, and of building a loyal audience  were ones that the BBC either avoided or just weren't bothered about. Eventually, by the time Radio 2 came on the scene in 1967, the team of announcers presenting the show was whittled down to a core of John Dunn, Paul Hollingdale, Peter Latham and, on Saturday morning, Bruce Wyndham. They were supplemented by Ray Moore following the launch of Radio 2. 

Meanwhile over on 'swinging' Radio 1 Tony Blackburn was pulling in large and appreciative audience for his lively new breakfast show. The difference was quite marked as these recordings of Breakfast Special in 1970 with Paul Hollingdale (and a little bit of Ray Moore) show.

The producers of Breakfast Special eventually cottoned on to the fact that listeners loved hearing the same voice everyday and that the show would become part of their daily routine. By the early 70s Ray Moore and John Dunn would take care of the programme for weeks at a time. This was years before the zoo format so Breakfast Special duties not only included presenting the three and a half hour show but reading the news (at least initially, later an additional announcer was drafted in to read the news and sports bulletin) and travel bulletins too, only throwing over to the likes of Vick Walters at the London Weather Centre for the forecast.         

The next big shake-up was in 1972 when Head of Music Mark White asked Terry Wogan to move from Radio 1's afternoon show to Radio 2's breakfast show. Mark was the man who had given the OK to Terry's audition tape back in 1966 and his first shows on the Light Programme. By 1972 the plan was to drop Breakfast Special and split it into two: opening the day with The Early Show hosted by a staff announcer (initially a number of them for a few weeks at a time and then from 1974 Simon Bates and from 1976 Colin Berry) and then Terry with a breakfast show.  

Terry recalls that "I was not to everyone's taste, though, over the wheatybangs. John Dunn had been the previous incumbent. Soft-spoken, urbane, with impeccable diction and manners, he was a perfect English gent; who was this Irish gobdaw, with his ridiculous exercises, upsetting the British Breakfast?"

Those "exercises" were the Fight the Flab feature he'd started on the afternoon show, shades of Up in the Morning Early. Another feature was to follow the morning racing bulletin with what became known as Wogan's Winner though the "nags I back rarely trouble the judge." Over 12 years Terry developed a rapport with his audience that had probably not been seen before, letters, poems and comic song lyrics poured in. Fun was to be made at the expense of BBC management and their bizarre Broadcasting House rooftop rituals and what was on the telly, especially US soap Dallas. There was the Floral Dance, son of Fight the Flab, Hello Chunky and pre-show chats with Jimmy Young.  

Here's an early example of Terry's show from April 1973.

All this ended in December 1984 when Terry stepped down from the breakfast show to prepare for the new thrice-weekly BBC1 chat show Wogan.  

Here's how Terry signed off.

Terry's replacement was a little unexpected, not least by the man himself. Ken Bruce had been working on Radio 2 for a couple of years covering the Early Show and presenting a Saturday late-night show when he got the call from controller Bryant Marriott. Initially unsure, "I was taking over from an icon", he accepted the gig. Others in the frame were his mate Ray Moore and David Hamilton.

Ken Bruce in 1985. "You won't be getting Wogan
with a Scottish accent" 

Starting on 7 January 1985 the show times were rejigged with a later start time of 8am, an odd decision for a breakfast show (in fact a long 8 a.m. bulletin meant that Ken didn't actually start the show until 8.07 a.m.), and ending at 10.30 a.m. in time for the JY prog. The new programme was pretty much music all the way with Radio 2 management reluctant to countenance many other programme elements. Ken recalls that a request to have a selection of newspapers in the studio to allow more current and informative subject matter was turned down "because Gloria Hunniford sometimes reads out snippets on her show". Perhaps the budget was spent on the lyric competition which offered winners a Ken Bruce eggcup!         

Here's Ken in action on 14 November 1985.

The next presenter was something of a left-field choice for Radio 2, that of former Fleet Street editor Derek Jameson. The head of music Frances Line was convinced that Ken was more suited to a mid-morning slot, which is indeed where he ended up and has been ever since, and she seemed to be instrumental in bringing Jameson into the fold.

Derek Jameson interviewed for the Radio Times w/c 5 April 1986

The reasons for Jameson's appointment  stem back to March 1980 and a sketch on Radio 4's Week Ending in which Jameson was described as "an East End boy made bad", who thought that "erudite was a type of glue". He didn't see the funny side of this and took legal action against the BBC. It took four years to come to court and in February 1984 Jameson lost the case and had to pay legal fees of £75,000. Apparently as a goodwill gesture the Corporation started to offer him work such as the BBC2 show Do They Mean Us? and a regular slot on Radio 4's The Colour Supplement. In November 1985 he was asked to cover for Jimmy Young for a week and provoked such a favourable reaction that he was offered the breakfast show.

Here's the first half hour of Derek's first show.  

If listeners had got used to Terry's whimsy and blarney followed by Ken's chuminess and dry humour then they were in for something of a shock with Derek Jameson. Now it was a gruff "mornin', mornin', Jameson 'ere!" and a show peppered with news items and interviews, though not with "the obvious bigwigs. I shall be talking to people who've got a story to tell." The BBC seemingly now had that newspaper budget.

Radio 2 listeners are (mainly) not a happy lot.
Letters to the Radio Times 3 May 1986

Reaction was mixed with letters to the Radio Times going from "raucous, uncouth ...indulging in news trivia and telephone conversations of toe-curling banality" to "a lovely man, full of merry quips and sideswipes at the way things are, is a real tonic."

This clip comes from 18 October 1989.

Programmes from the self-styled 'bunker' saw a step up personnel, both on-air and behind the scenes with former Radio 2 newsreader Vivien Stuart joining Derek as 'weatherwoman' and two (later three) producers, initially Brian Stephens and Anthony Cherry, plus a researcher, with another former Radio 2 newsreader Ruth Cubbin working on the show for the first year or so. There were a number of OBs including this pre-Christmas edition from Gatwick airport on 21 December 1990.

Amazingly Derek Jameson's tenure at breakfast lasted six years - his last show was on 20 December 1991 - before he was shunted off to a four nights a week late-night show with his missus. There were, according to Ken Bruce, two schools of thought on this move. One that Derek and Ellen would make a "quirky on-air team" and would be a way of diversifying production bases as it was to come from the Glasgow studios. Theory two was that they offered him a package "so insulting he would resign" due to the move north, the reduction in hours and the splitting of the fee. Nonetheless. they bought a flat in Glasgow as a base and the late-night The Jamesons ran for five years.       

Libby Purves speaks to Brian Hayes.
Radio Times w/c 4 January 1992

Next up was Brian Hayes, at the time best known to listeners in London for his long-running LBC phone ins and acerbic style. Brian had been introduced to national BBC listeners in 1991 covering for Jimmy Young (something he'd do almost a decade later when Jim was unwell prior to his 'retirement') and as a guest interviewer on Radio 4's Midweek.  This is the start of Brian's first Radio 2 breakfast show on 6 January 1992 which promised "more music and less speech" and adopted the title Good Morning UK.

The attempts at mixing news elements and music seemed, at first. a little half-hearted and missed some of the verbal jousting with callers and guests that Brian had built his reputation on at LBC. Whilst the shows did pick up during the year behind the scenes Terry Wogan was itching to get back to radio , his TV chat show having ended and replaced by the ill-fated Eldorado. As a result Brian's tenure was short lived and ended in the December. By way of consolation he was given a weekly phone-in on the station, Hayes Over Britain that ran for four years and later he appeared on Radio 5 live with a weekend breakfast show and other programmes until 2006.

And so it was that Terry returned to the breakfast show in January 1993 "my heaven it's good to be back....he lied". Here's how he sounded on day one.

For the next 16 years Terry was at the top of his game. The show developed from giving away alarm clocks (WUTWACs), to the near the knuckle Janet and John stories, the faithful band of TOGs, studio support from Dr Wally and then 'Barrowlands' Boyd, a coterie of newsreaders whose lives, real and imagined were woven into the show. 

I've uploaded just over 20 of Terry's shows (many as podcast versions) on YouTube and there are more than a dozen on Mixcloud from myself and other users. The latest upload from me is this complete show from 28 November 2006.  

Although Terry's position at breakfast was unassailable Radio 2 management were thinking about the inevitable day when he'd step aside as far back as 2005 when Chris Evans was bought into the BBC fold. Initially with a Saturday afternoon show, in 2006 he was offered drivetime by Lesley Douglas (the then Controller) and told, according to Evans, "if and when it [breakfast] becomes available, and if you've behaved yourself and things have gone alright on drivetime - who know?"   

Sir Terry bows out (for a second time).
Radio Times w/c 12 December 2009

Wogan later intimated that he would leave the show at the end of 2008 but when the so-called Sachsgate episode erupted he was asked to stay on a help 'steady the ship' for a little while. In the event Terry remained for another year and made bade an emotional farewell on 18 December 2009. It was the end of an era.  

It was inevitable that when Chris Evans took over the breakfast show many listeners would miss the calm, collected tones of Sir Terry and that Evans approach was just too shouty. In an attempt smooth the transition for TOGs that tuned in, Chris started the first show with The Beatles and Frank Sinatra,  assuring listeners that there'd be no "turbulence" and re-introducing Moira Stuart back to the station as the programme's newsreader - she'd read the news and presented overnight shows on Radio 2 back in the early 80s. Also as part of the on air team was travel reporter Lynn Bowles, who'd been such a major part of Terry's shows, and coming over from drivetime Jonny Saunders with the sports news.  

Fears that Radio 2's listeners would drain away proved unfounded but there's no doubt some of Terry's old listeners did tune-in elsewhere on the dial. The show slowly evolved with more studio guests, including the Friday editions packed with live music, 500 Words, CarFest and the continued support for Terry's beloved Children in Need. Sadly a tendency to trample all over the music didn't change. 

This was Chris's first show.          

2018 proved to be a difficult year for Radio 2 with the turmoil over the drivetime show which led to the departure of once of its best broadcasters, Simon Mayo and the shock announcement from Chris Evans that he was leaving to (re)join Virgin Radio. "I crave the uncertainty" he would say on his final show. There was much speculation as to his replacement with money going on Sara Cox (once described back in 1999 as "the next Zoe Ball") who did such sterling work when depping on the show. But instead Radio 2 plundered yet another of the Radio 1 breakfast show alumni, Zoe Ball.

This is Chris's last breakfast show as broadcast on 24 December.  

Zoe Ball's association with Radio 2 started in earnest in 2009 when she covered for Ken Bruce (although she'd first appeared briefly in 2006) and presented a Saturday early show between 2009 and 2012. She was back in 2017 with a Saturday afternoon show that ended just before Christmas.

In 1997 Zoe was employed on Radio 1's breakfast show to fall out of the clubs and into the studio, "blonde, bouncy but also ballsy" according to one headline of the time. Now her role for Radio 2 is critical: holding on to that large inherited audience and being the cornerstone of a new schedule that has, in part, been forced on the station and is, in part, self-inflicted. And in a neat bit of serendipity the 'battle for breakfast' mirrors the 1997 face-off between Zoe at the Beeb and Chris at Virgin. Fascinating times for radio. 

You'll be able to hear Zoe's first show next Monday at 6.30 a.m..  

The Last Farewell

2016 took its toll on the entertainment world  with the passing of many major actors, singers and comedians. Radio too marked the loss of four DJs each of whose careers had spanned about five decades. All four famously appeared in that group shot to mark the launch of BBC Radio 1. They are, on the back row, Jimmy Young and Dave Cash, in the middle Terry Wogan and seated at the front Ed Stewart.    

I've written about Jim, Dave, Terry and Stewpot during the year. But as 2016 draws to a close here's a further opportunity to enjoy their work.

Ed Stewart

Ed presented a revived version of Junior Choice live every Christmas Day on Radio 2 between 2007 and 2015. The playlist was virtually the same every year - festive pop classics mixed with all the children's favourites and novelty songs - but listeners loved it. Here's the complete programme from Christmas 2009. Reading the news is Fran Godfrey.

Between 1991 and 1999 Ed had a daily afternoon show on Radio 2. His final show was on Friday 2 July before he was moved to a Sunday afternoon slot. Here's the majority of that programme. Yet again the perils of recording on a C90 means that the tape turn falls in the middle of the Accumulator Quiz. Taking part in the final run is quiz junkie Isabelle Heward - she's in the current series of Mastermind and has appeared on The Weakest Link, The Chase, Only Connect, Counterpoint, Countdown and 15-1. Also featured are Barbara Windsor, Hilary Oliver, Radio 2 controller Jim Moir and, for some reason, Victoria Beckham's dad, Tony Adams. With the travel news is Sally Traffic and reading the news Colin Berry.

Terry Wogan

For nine years, 2000 to 2008, it was a Christmas morning tradition for Radio 2 to feature a show with Our Tel. All recorded of course, Terry would no doubt be at home helping "the present Mrs Wogan"  to peel the veg. This is a delightful slice of audio archive from Christmas Day 2007. Assisting Sir Terry are Deadly, Boggy, Lynn and Barrowlands Boyd in a tribute to Mrs Gaskell, Scranford, a panto and a Janet and John story. 

Dave Cash

Dave hosted what would be his final shows, The Dave Cash Countdown as well as Dave Cash Country, on the weekend of 15th and 16th October. Here's the penultimate Saturday evening retro chart show as heard on BBC Radio Kent on the 8th of October playing hits from 1968 and 1978.

I've posted this before but this is Dave's guest appearance on Pirate Johnnie Walker as heard on Radio 2 on 27 December 2009.

Jimmy Young

When Jimmy died last month he hadn't been on air with a regular show for 14 years as he'd been given the boot by Radio 2 in December 2002. My tribute to Jimmy includes his final show and his penultimate one is on MixCloud. But here's 80-odd minutes of the anti-penultimate show from Wednesday 18 December 2002. 

Jimmy did present other shows on Radio 2, he took turns on Radio 2 Top Tunes and Two's Best for instance. But here he is as the compere of a concert that very much features the kind of music he probably would've first introduced on the Light Programme. The Golden Age of Radio was broadcast on 22 February 1992 live from the White Rock Theatre in Hastings. The BBC Concert Orchestra is conducted by Bramwell Tovey and the guest pianist is Alison Procter. I'm grateful to Paul Langford for this recording (which is edited). 

Radio Lives - Jimmy Young

From The Man from Laramie and "What's the recipe today, Jim?" to the Grand Inquisitor of the Great and the Good and the consumer's champion. Jimmy Young's sixty year career moved from 50s crooner to one of the UK's best-known broadcasters. Surprisingly JY was offered a prime mid-morning slot amongst all the bright young things and homecoming former pirates when Radio 1 was launched in 1967. Soon becoming the housewives favourite,  his show was a jolly mix of records and chat but is perhaps best remembered for those daily recipes, "Let's Hear about Home Cooking" jingle and the voice of Raymondo.  All those elements transferred to Radio 2 in 1973 but the show gradually morphed into a mix of current affairs and consumer advice interspersed with music.  How did all this happen? Well first it's back to the beginning. "'Orft we jolly well go..."

Leslie Ronald Young was born on 21 September 1921 in Cinderford in Gloucestershire's Forest of Dean where his father, an ex-miner, and his uncle ran a successful bakers and confectioners business.  He never lost that Gloucestershire accent. He later admitted: "It's a nice soft burr that sounds warm and friendly. It's easy on the ear, and I have no doubt it's been an enormous asset for me in my broadcasting career".

"Our Jim" - for some reason his family never called him Leslie - was mad about music and he dreamed of a musical career. Both parents sang in choirs and his mother also taught piano and organ.  However, Jim's ambitions had to be put on hold as he was helping his father mixing the dough and driving the delivery van. When war was declared in 1939 he joined the RAF, though he was never pilot material. Eventually he saw service in India and Pakistan and managed to get his first taste of showbusiness taking part in the concert parties - presumably something not too dissimilar from It Ain't Half Hot Mum.

After the war Jimmy married his first wife Wendy Wilkinson - though the marriage was short-lived - and was employed firstly managing his brother-in-law's hairdressing salon and then as a civil servant at the Ministry of Education.  Still pursuing his musical ambitions, in 1948 he passed a BBC audition though the verdict was tempered with "it now remains to be seen whether you can be used in broadcasts". He wasn't, at least not for another year.

1949 proved more eventful. First Jimmy received a phone call from pianist Bill Williams asking him to stand in for him, leading to regular gigs at the Nordic Club. Secondly, performing at the nightclub he was spotted by BBC producer George Inns - later of The Black and White Minstrel Show fame - who recommended him to the Variety Department. Jimmy's first radio broadcast was on 9 August singing with the Ronnie Pleydell Orchestra. Further broadcasts  followed in Stars of Tomorrow and Look Who's Here and with Ray Martin and his Orchestra. He returned with Ronnie Pleydell in 1950 in Moonlight Reverie.  It was whilst appearing with Ray Martin that Jimmy met female vocalist Sally Douglas; she would become his second wife in a marriage lasting just six years. He met his third wife, Alicia Padstow, in the early 70s when she was working as a secretary at Broadcasting House. Together for many years they eventually married in 1996. 

On the recording front Jimmy was signed to Alan Freeman's Polygon label (that's the record producer not 'Fluff') alongside Ray Martin and Petula Clark. He cut his first disc Too Young - it was almost as if it'd been written for him. In the era of multiple recordings of the same song his performance was up against Nat King Cole and Steve Conway but there were no record charts in 1951 to show who was on top, though the sheet music hit number one.

Back at the BBC Jimmy continued to appear in the early 50s as the guest singer on many radio shows on both the Light Programme and Home Service. The list is long but includes Variety Bandbox, Variety Matinee, Workers' Playtime, The Memory Lingers On, A Midday Date, Enchanted Rhythm, Treble Chance, The Song Shop, The Show Band Show and Take It Easy. He also a DJ on Flat Spin (1953), appeared on BBC TV in How Do You View? and Off the Record and got main billing on the Light Programme's The Jimmy Young Show (1954).

Away from the radio Jimmy was continuing to appear in cabaret and on theatre tours and eventually left Polygon and signed with Decca. In 1955 he hit pay dirt with two records that made it to the top of the Hit Parade: Unchained Melody and The Man from Laramie. This time his version of Unchained Melody was definitely the best-selling; the version by Al Hibbler reached number 2 and Les Baxter's peaked at number 10.  Al Martino's rendition of The Man from Laramie made it to number 19. The NME's top-selling artists of 1955 listed Ruby Murray at number one with our Jim coming in second.

Those hit records led to Jimmy's first booking on Housewives' Choice in October 1955 - aside from established broadcasters this was a contract often offered to popular singers and actors who could cut it behind the microphone. 

In the second half of the 1950s Jimmy's radio appearances were less frequent but now he was at least getting top billing in The Song's the Thing and The Night is Young which enjoyed a short TV series and then a longer Light Programme run. 

Jimmy always credits his big break into radio as a presenter rather than mainly host and singer to a June 1960 re-booking on Housewive's Choice. "Before I'd even finished the first week my phone began to ring with offers of work".

Within a couple of months Jimmy was appearing on EMI sponsored show for Radio Luxembourg. He continued to work for the station until early 1968, programmes included The Night is Young (there's that title again), The Jimmy Young Hour, Record Romance and Like Young. Many of those EMI shows were produced by Harry Walters and then Ken Evans, both of whom would later produce The JY Prog on Radio 2.

Meanwhile Jimmy was very busy at the BBC with a ton of radio work including Time for Old Time (1960-61), Twelve O'Clock Spin (1960-63), Records Around Five (1961), Stringalong (1961), Younger than Springtime (1961-62), Teenager's Turn (1961), and, appearing with the Johnny Pearson Orchestra on Once in a While (1962-63) and In a Sentimental Mood (1963). On BBC TV he popped up on Juke Box Jury and in 1963 hosted the new talent show The 625 Show (it went out at 6.25 pm on Tuesday evenings). Over on ITV Jimmy appeared on Spin-a-Disc feature that was part of ABC's Saturday night music show Thank Your Lucky Stars (1961-64). 

Here's an extract from JY's Light Programme work introducing music from Johnny Pearson and singing the occasional song on In a Sentimental Mood. (With thanks to Peter Preston) 

Starting in December 1963 and running through to April 1964 was Jimmy's first unscripted radio work on Saturday Special. This Saturday afternoon mix of music, features (including Barry Bucknall's DIY tips) and live sports coverage was described by the Radio Times thus: "His job is to line up offbeat facts and fancies of the weekend from our regional correspondents, keep his ears glued to the line between us and BBC Sportsroom and cue the music of the Northern variety Orchestra and vocal stars on record".

Jimmy's next major radio project was Through Till Two (1964-65). This was a late night show occupying the four  hours either side of midnight, the first couple of hours in the company of Jimmy and the second with Steve Race. When Steve suffered a heart attack Jimmy looked after the full programme. Through Till Two was an interactive record request show. Unbelievably they had up to sixty operators answering calls who then typed up listeners' requests onto slips of paper that were passed through to the producer Geoffrey Hayden. Once he'd selected the next track from the requests someone would run into the nearby record library and pull out the disc for playing into the show.  Jimmy recalls that TTT was "an enormous success. In fact we achieved the highest-ever listening figures for a late-night radio programme."  

For the remainder of the Light Programme's life Jimmy was also presenting a 10 a.m. music show once a week (1965-67) introducing various musical acts and singing the odd song himself. In 1966 he joined the roster of DJs on Midday Spin (1966-67).

There's that famous 1967 photo of the Radio 1 DJs sitting on the steps of the steps of All Soul's Church. And who's the oldest of that swinging groovy group? Well apart from controller Robin Scott it's our Jim. On the launch schedule he was offered a plum mid-morning role each weekday in which he "plays discs, greets guests, sings songs, phones people."  Scott secured Jimmy for the slot as he wanted a safe pair of hands that would bring in an audience. Going out between 10 a.m. and noon, with the first hour simulcast on Radio 2, it was, by 1969, bringing in an audience of 5.75 million, outstripping all other weekday programmes including Tony Blackburn's breakfast show on 4.45 million.

The best remembered feature of those early Radio 1 years is the daily  recipe, the idea of JY's formidable producer and show editor Doreen Davies. The recipes were sent in by listeners and any selected had to meet the criteria that they used readily available ingredients and were easy to prepare. Doreen would road test the broadcast recipes at home, presumably trying them out on her husband, fellow producer Derek Mills.  In time the feature was introduced by the speeded up voice of producer Ray Harvey, as a character known as Raymondo, asking "What's the recipe today, Jim?" It also spawned four Jimmy Young cookbooks. Added to the mix Jimmy would occasionally burst into song himself and the show was interspersed with his bizarre panoply of verbal mannerisms: "TTT - through 'til twelve", "Orft we jolly well go", "MMMMFs - many millions of mid-morning friends" and, of course, his sign-off "BFN - bye for now". (And not TTFN as widely quoted online last week). 

Here's a taste of how those Radio 1 shows sounded.   

In July 1973 The JY Prog was moved from Radio 1 over to Radio 2, where it stayed for the next 29 years. The Town Talk theme and daily recipe slot transferred too - it was eventually dropped in 1981 - but the show's sound soon started to go off in a slightly different direction. In the early days the team would pick up on consumer issues - those that would directly affect his audience - and his first interview in 1973 was with Geoffrey Howe, the Minister for Trade and Consumer Affairs.

Back in his  Radio 1 days Jimmy had already shown that current affairs and music could mix in a series of shows broadcast from around Europe in the run-up to Britain's entry into the EEC. But increasingly Jim was interviewing politicians and experts on his Radio 2 show - sometimes much to the annoyance of his news and current affairs colleagues. Over time he developed an interviewing technique designed to put the interviewee at ease - he always used first names for instance - but always calmly and persistently asking the kind of questions that his listeners would wish to ask. There was no attempt to be clever or engage in point scoring, he always listened and responded to the answer. This was the period he moved away from the role of DJ to that of presenter and interviewer. Here are some show highlights with clips from a number of mainly political interviews.   

Cover star in March 1983 

It wasn't just politics of course. There were a regular panel of experts that Jimmy would invite into the studio to answer listeners' queries or problems. On medical matters were doctors Mike Smith, Bill Dolman, Gillian Rice and Mark Porter. Fielding legal issues were 'Legal Beagle' Bill Thomas and 'Legal Eagle' Andrew Phillips. Every Thursday Tony D'Angeli, editor of The Grocer, would talk about the latest food prices and tackle questions on the availability of products, food safety or whatever. Over the years others experts included gardener Daphne Ledward 'Daffers', on antiques Eric Knowles and vet Bruce Fogle. Between 1974 and 2001 Jimmy would also present Radio 2's General Election coverage and from 1981 on Budget days there would be afternoon specials with economic expert Dominic Harrod usually on hand. 

Interaction with 'the listener ' became increasingly important but they were never put on-air, there were no phone-ins. This stance at least helped things zip along. Jimmy explained:  "My producer would rush into my studio and hurl handfuls of paper at me, I would then select the most interesting, entertaining and controversial and read them out. By making the final one the most outrageous I ensured a further deluge. Comment fuelled further comment and kept the programme rattling along. "

  

In October 1981 Jimmy spoke to the Radio Times about his show: "Why interviews work so well is, he thinks, because he can shift away from his subject if the talk bogs down, to play music, then return to a relaxed aspect of conversation".  And on the subject of radio: "It's terribly important. So many people just cannot communicate and for them I've managed to open an area that was closed; the current affairs people were just a little bit elitist, saying in effect 'This is not for you; don't bother your head about it'. "

For many Radio 2 listeners one of the daily highlights was when Jimmy popped into Terry Wogan's studio to plug his show and participate in a bit of verbal thrust and parry. Tel wrote this in Banjaxed: "Sometimes, of a morning, I feel a surge of pity as the nurse wheels the grand old broadcaster into my studio in his bath-chair, and after wetting his dry, cracked lips with a sponge, we get a few weak, rambling sentences from him. Often the cry goes up 'Nurse! The screens!' But it's usually too late. Hard to believe that this shattered husk was once the Singing Baker's Boy, The Man from Laramie, the one who was Too Young, the Donny Osmond of his day".  

I've posted these clips of Tel and Jimbo before, they date from 1978 and 1980.

In an era of seemingly generous BBC budgets the programme would occasionally undertake OBs from around the UK and around the globe. The first major expedition was to Moscow in 1977 - the JY Progski - the first live BBC broadcast from beyond the Iron Curtain. Other overseas broadcasts come from around Europe, Egypt, Israel, the States, Japan, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and Zimbabwe.

In the 1980s the JY Prog came from Glasgow, Tokyo, Hong King
and Australia 

The only time I ever saw JY was when I was on holiday in Devon in the summer of 1978 where, for no particular reason, he presented the show from the quarter deck of a replica of The Golden Hind in Brixham harbour. My two abiding memories are how small Jimmy was and how impeccably dressed he was. Here's the start and end of the show together with a number of clips from the late 1970s and the 1980s.

Promoting Jim's World in March 1974

At this point it's worth mentioning some of Jimmy's TV work in this period. For BBC1 in 1972 he took consumer advice to the streets in Jimmy Young Asks. He told the Radio Times: "The thing is I get on well with people. I always have. If I go among ordinary people they'll ask talk to me. I find that anywhere."  Over on ITV in 1973 he was a regular panellist alongside Richard Coleman on the Thames produced panel game Whose Baby?  The following year he was the host of the lunchtime series from Southern TV Jim's World. Initially a light entertainment programme it broadened out to include current affairs as well. There was more advice on offer on BBC1 in 1979 in a guide to everyday maths called It Figures. When Thames ran its first Telethon in October 1980 Jimmy was one of the hosts. Between 1984 and 1986 Jimmy also recorded a number of topical discussion programmes at Yorkshire Television (recorded on Friday evening after Jim had signed off from his radio show and caught the train up to Leeds) for broadcast late on Sunday evening under the unimaginative title The Jimmy Young Programme. The 1985 and 1986 series were networked by ITV

The JY Prog remained a fixture on Radio 2 throughout the 1980s and 1990s in a late morning and then lunchtime slots.  Jimmy's eventual  departure from the BBC was a messy affair that played itself in public over about three years. Stories that JY was to leave Radio 2 had first appeared in the press in late 1998, although at the time he claimed that he'd continue until he dropped. It was suggested that Controller Jim Moir had approached Nicky Campbell, a fact Nicky later confirmed. Jimmy's contract was up for renewal in 2002 anyway. To complicate matters during that final year he was very poorly following complications from an earlier hip replacement operation and Brian Hayes was deputising for him. After about five months off-air Jimmy returned on 9 December to enjoy a fortnight's swansong.

JY signs off. The Times 21 December 2002

When the final JY Prog aired on Friday 20 December 2002 Jimmy was not a happy bunny. As you'll hear in this full recording (with thanks to Noel Tyrrel) he's a little scratchy during his pre-show chat with Ken Bruce.  In signing off he tells his listeners: "I don't want to leave you that's true to say, but nonetheless that's what's been decreed." At the end it's into the news with a final "And for the very last time I fear, bye for now."

Jimmy's replacement was Jeremy Vine, who'd done the occasional cover on the programme during 2001 and 2002. Radio 2 offered Jimmy a weekend show with the same mix of music and current affairs but, understandably, he turned it down. There was a theatre tour of An Audience with Jimmy Young and a regular column in the Sunday Express but he didn't return to radio apart from a some guest appearances. At Christmas 2003 he appeared on Ned Sherrin's Loose Ends and in 2011 he was finally welcomed back to Radio 2 to chat with Ken Bruce about his life and career on Sir Jimmy Young at 90. Here's that programme as heard on 20 September 2011.

In 2012 Jimmy was back on the second series of Desmond Carrington's Icon of the 50s. His contributions were spread over the four programmes but here I've stitched them together.

Jimmy's last radio appearance was earlier this year when he offered a few brief words in tribute to his old radio sparring partner Terry Wogan. Last Monday it was announced that Jimmy had died "peacefully at home". He was 95. 

Fulsome tributes were paid reflecting Jimmy's major contribution to British broadcasting and in particular recalling the unique way he skilfully blended music, current affairs and expert advice for the best part of three decades. On Tuesday lunchtime the first hour of Jeremy Vine's show was devoted to memories of Jimmy with contributions from Jim Moir, Dr Mike Smith, Andrew Phillips, Gordon Brown, Frank Field, John Gummer and Gillian Reynolds. 

Sir Jimmy Young 1921-2016 Bye for now!  

Radio Lives - Terry Wogan

Last Sunday was a dark day for broadcasting and for those who ever had the joy of listening to Terry Wogan on the breakfast show. In the radio hall of fame Terry will be sitting at the top table.

This week we've heard and read plenty about the man himself but in this post I'll be dipping in and out of Terry's radio career, as well as adding the occasional nod as to what he was up to on the telly. No analysis, just lots of programme clips and the words of Sir Terry himself.

Kicking off on RTE

Terry's broadcasting career started at Radio Eireann in Dublin in 1961, at first part-time whilst he held his job with the Royal Bank of Ireland, and then in the permanent position as continuity announcer. Terry didn't exactly have a high opinion of Irish radio: "it was hopeless, with its mixture of classical, quasi-religious and 'diddly-eye' music," but he'd got his foot in the door.

Terry learnt his craft at RTE, "microphone technique, intonation, emphasis, phrasing and delivery". He credits Head of Presentation Denis Meehan, his deputy Brigid Kilfeather and announcer Liam Devally, all of them becoming "Irish broadcasting legends".

24 April 1965. Terry marries model Helen Joyce - 'the
present Mrs Wogan' 

Typically of announcers at that time, on both RTE and the BBC, you were expected to be a jack of all trades, reading the news and the market reports, presenting record shows, introducing concerts and the like. One of the most popular radio shows was Hospital Requests and Terry took to it like a duck to water. "I realised that ad-libbing off cards and letters in between records was something I could do with ease." His other radio show was the punningly-titled Terry Awhile - a midday show that was a mixture of music and phone calls made by Terry on written request from listeners - which he continued to present whilst working part-time for the BBC.  He also worked for Telefis Eireann, taking over from Gay Byrne as the host of Jackpot, a variation on Criss-Cross Quiz.

In this short sequence Terry commentates on President Kennedy's visit to Dublin in June 1963, there's the soundtrack from an edition of the TV documentary series Discovery and a clip from Hospital Requests in 1966 - his broadcasting style already in evidence, warm in tone and very laid back.

Bright, Exciting Radio 1

The sudden dropping of Jackpot by RTE prompted Terry to seek auditions with BBC TV and ITV, but he drew a blank. Instead he set his sights on the BBC Light Programme. Growing up this was, along with the American Forces Network, his station of choice. "It became my window on the world, my magic carpet to another place. It influenced my thoughts, my speech, my attitudes, my sense of humour. Everyone else of my contemporaries seemed to be listening to Irish Radio, but I struggled towards puberty with the help of Workers' Playtime, Mrs Dale's Diary, Dick Barton: Special Agent, Much Binding in the Marsh and then Take It From Here, Educating Archie, The Goons and Hancock's Half-Hour."

The new team of Late Night Extra presenters when Radio 1
launches in September 1967

So, in 1966, Terry posted off a tape of his radio work to Mark White at the BBC - a tape he'd failed to rewind. On the strength of what he heard Mark offered Terry a weekly slot for 11 weeks on Midday Spin, a 45-minute show with the records played in London and Terry talking down the line from RTE. The BBC then offered him a one-off Christmas show and a turn on Housewives' Choice. Sending off another tape, of Terry Awhile, to Mark White secured him a place in the new Radio 1 line-up, as one of the presenters of Late Night Extra. This meant flying across from Dublin to London every week. Later, once he'd secured more regular work with the Corporation, he was still commuting the other way to record sponsored radio shows for RTE.  

Terry sits in for Jimmy Young in 1969. The programme is billed
as 'coming from our own studios' presumably to let listeners
know he won't be sitting in Dublin.

In July 1969 Terry was given the chance of a try-out on a daily show, sitting in for Jimmy Young. The bosses were suitably impressed and from September he finally got his own afternoon show, taking over the slot from Dave Cash.  Those shows, for the most part simulcast on Radio 2, ran until March 1972. Their greatest contribution to the public consciousness was Fight the Flab, with Terry acting as a kind of Eileen Fowler. "It was the making of me and my afternoon radio show." By 1971 BBC Enterprises were selling Fight the Flab exercise booklets for 20p.

Two's Company

This is the era of Wogan's Winner, Hello Chunky, TWITS, the poisoned dwarf, the dance of the BBC virgins and directoire knickers.

With Breakfast Special coming to an end in March 1972 the morning replacements were The Early Show, with various continuity announcers presenting and Terry Wogan's new breakfast show. "The aim is to offer a reasonable musical alternative to Tony Blackburn - who's the best Top 30 DJ in the country. I'll play the kind of thing I'd like to listen to in the morning - Frank Sinatra, Brook Benton and Andy Williams." Later he would go on to define his relationship with listeners as "one of mutual recrimination. I do the talking, but I try to establish a dialogue by getting them to write in."

Radio Times April 1972 as Terry moves
to Breakfast, and stays for 13 years

One feature he inherited from Breakfast Special was the Racing Bulletin, masterminded by Tony Fairburn of the Racing Information Bureau. The daily tip eventually became Wogan's Winner which enjoyed mixed success. "You couldn't tip rubbish", listeners would exclaim.

In this sequence you'll hear Terry talking about his experience of having Eamonn Andrews loom up on him with his Big Red Book. There are also those chats with Jimmy Young, ostensibly JY coming in to plug his programme but which became a must-listen feature in themselves. Some of the recordings come from Two's Best, hence the voice of Colin Berry pops up.

Pop Score. terry with his chum Pete Murray

Other radio work at this time included a weekly chat show Wogan's World. Running for three series (1974-75) it was recorded at Pebble Mill under the guidance of producer Jock Gallagher.  There was also the long-running Radio 2 quiz about popular music Pop Score (1972-92) which Terry appeared on for the first five years. Over on Radio 4 was the slightly more erudite The Year in Question (1973-81) with Terry being a resident panellist alongside Lady Isobel Barnett for the first four series and then with Ann Meo when it returned in 1980 and 81.

It's Ann and Terry plus Susannah Simons and Fred Housego who face some gentle probing from Richard Stilgoe in this edition from September 1981.

During the 1970s and 1980s Radio 2 was the sports network and Terry was drafted in to host coverage of the major games: the Olympics in 1976 and 1984, plus the 1992 games for Radio 5, and the 1978 and 1982 Commonwealth Games.

Hear the close of the 1978 Edmonton Commonwealth Games with Gerald Williams and the 'demented pianist'. Then the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics from an OB truck in a parking lot. This provided a mix of sport and Hollywood glamour as Terry chats to commentators Raymond Brookes-Ward and Ian Darke and interviews Shelley Long about "this Cheers". 

In December 1984 Terry bade goodbye, "the last fandango", to his breakfast show listeners - "the abdication of Terry Wogan, giving up the throne and the crown of England for the woman he loves ... Victoria Principal" according to Ray Moore.   He was clearing space in his life for the thrice-weekly primetime chat show that was due to launch on BBC1 in February. This is how that show played out (with music edits). You'll perceive that his listeners were a poetic lot.

Meanwhile on the Telly

Most of Terry's TV appearances were on the Beeb but his first chat show was actually for 'the other side'. Lunchtime with Wogan, broadcast from ATV's Elstree studios, ran for 44 weekly editions in 1972 and 1973. The TV Times editorial read: "Irish disc jockey Terry Wogan chats up studio guests and audience. Between talk, resident  personalities Penny Lane and Carl Wayne sing. 'The show will be casual and relaxed,' says producer/director Mike Lloyd. 'This is a young team, but the programme is intended to suit all ages. Wogan will involve the studio audience as much as possible so that it will be they who make the show. It will all be ad-lib fun.'”

No episodes were kept but a tape of ITV's Christmas 1972 All Star Comedy Carnival has survived featuring the man himself.

On BBC TV Terry's first regular gigs were as compere on Come Dancing. "At the end of it all, the public was still firmly convinced that it was introduced by Peter West, the show's original presenter. I made all the impact of a blancmange, but it was fun." There were also the various Miss UK/Miss World contests and the like usually co-presented with either Michael Aspel or David Vine.

The first ever edition of Blankety Blank 18 January 1979

Blankety Blank came about when BBC bosses were looking for a new TV vehicle for Terry. Producer Alan Boyd - not to be confused with Terry's radio producer Alan 'Barrowlands' Boyd - adapted a US daytime show called The Match Game, a format that came complete with the long wand microphone that Terry would waft around, and Kenny Everett would bend out of shape. "For me, it was the tackiness of the prizes that gave the show is distinctive flavour, that turned it into a tongue-in-cheek send-up of a game-show." Plus it gave us one of Ronnie Hazelhurst's finest compositions.   

Having presented chat shows for ATV and Radio 4, Terry got his first chance to do the same on BBC1 with a short series of Tuesday night shows in 1982. Three further longer series followed in 1983 and 1984, this time in Parky's old timeslot on Saturday night. Bill Cotton then approached Terry to sound him out for a primetime show three-nights-a-week as part of a BBC1 revamp. He took the risk and told his Radio 2 bosses that he was packing in the breakfast show.

This is a radio-themed edition of Wogan from 1987 marking Radio 1's 20th anniversary. It's packed with loads of familiar faces/voices.

Other TV work has included Auntie's Bloomers, Points of View, Do the Right Thing, Wogan's Web, The Terry and Gaby Show for Five, and Wogan's Perfect Recall for Channel 4. But, of course, the two big television juggernauts that Terry was most associated with are Eurovision and Children in Need.

Terry had done straight forward commentaries for the Eurovision Song Contest, first on the Radio in 1971 and between 1974 and 1977 and then on BBC TV in 1973 and 1978. But between 1980 and 2008 he was Eurovision, as far as UK viewers were concerned. Increasingly scoffing at the bizarre acts and partisan voting.

Last year Terry chewed the Eurovision fat with Ken Bruce in a special Tracks of My Years programme on the Radio 2 Eurovision pop-up station. (This programme has been edited).

Children in Need had been running annual appeals since the 1920s. Terry made the TV and radio appeals in 1978 and 1979 and the following year helped launch the first of the annual telethons. The first show raised £1m, the last one that Terry worked on in 2014 topped £32m on the night. "If you're going to talk about high points, then that's got to be my highest. Over the years we've raised £480 million for children's charities, and that makes me very proud indeed. So you see - I did turn out good for something in the end!" 

Wogan's Back at Breakfast

This is the era of the TOGS, Janet and John, Dr Wally, Barrowlands, Boggy's shed, snorkers and  Chuffer Dandridge and the white fiver.

Wogan was cancelled by BBC1 in July 1992. "My regret is I didn’t stop the talk show a year earlier. But ‘No, no’, they said, ‘we need to carry on because it’s 150 hours of broadcasting on the television and we need you to go on. In the meantime they were building a village in Spain for the show ­Eldorado.”

It was David Hatch, Managing Director of Radio and a family friend, that was instrumental in bringing Terry back to radio. And so it was on 4 January 1993 that Radio 2 had a morning schedule shake-up: out goes Brain Hayes after just one year and in comes Sarah Kennedy with her Dawn Patrol (though it's still billed as The Early Show) and Our Tel is back with his tail between his legs! He's got a programme title, Wake Up to Wogan and he's giving away alarm clocks (WUTWACs). Apart from being a little rusty with the studio equipment Terry pretty much picks up where he left off, he's even got his old producer Geoff Mullen looking after him.   

This is how the first hour or so sounded, again with music edits.

Cover star in August 2008

The show gradually evolves and becomes bigger than ever; it's radio's most listened to breakfast show, even the Queen tunes in. The listeners, and Terry's Old Geezers and Girls in particular, take a more active role, essentially writing Terry's material for him, and in the case of the Janet and John stories, that arrive in the mid 2000s, exactly that. The growth of emails and social media means that listeners can get their insults to Terry even quicker. Producer Paul Walters, Dr Wally, takes over and pays a little more attention to the playlist, bringing new artists to the fore, and is heard on-air muttering away in the background. The newsreaders, rather than just doing straight run through of the travel news, stop for a chat and a whole other life is created around them, they become walk-on characters. The 'underlings' are Alan Dedicoat (Deadley Alancoat of Harrow, the Voice of the Balls) Fran Godfey (renown for locking up any tradesmen that call), John Marsh (organ-playing, shed-owning Boggy Marsh), Charles Nove (the bus driving super-Nove) and later Lynn Bowles (the Travel Totty from Splotty).

Here's an aircheck from 13 June 2005. Terry's knighthood has just been announced. Will that engender congratulations from the TOGs? Not one bit of it. Also in the studio are Fran Godfrey and Paul Walters.

The following year selected chunks of Wake Up to Wogan are available as podcasts. "Look ma, I'm podcasting!" Speaking about the show in 2010 Terry said: "If you were listening ten years ago, and compare it to my last year, the tone and attitude would be the same, but now we take more chances. You have to move with the times. I get away with an awful lot. Nobody's ever pulled me up."

Starting this weekend I'll be posting some Wake Up to Wogan podcasts on the Random Radio Jottings YouTube channel. 

Listeners that caught the end of the programme could enjoy the badinage during the handover to Ken Bruce. Here are a selection (audio courtesy of Noel Tyrrel)

Our Tel with Alan Boyd, Alan, John, Charles & Lynn.
No expense is spared on champagne glasses!

In September 2009 Terry tells his loyal audience that he's standing down at the end of the year, handing over the baton to Chris Evans. His sign-off on 18 December is reported across all the media. The music choices alone would have you blubbing but his final goodbye - probably the only time he'd scripted the show - is one of radio's most emotionally charged moments. "Now I'm not going to pretend that this is not a sad day; you can probably hear it in my voice. I'm going to miss the laughter and the fun of our mornings together. I know you're going to welcome Chris Evans with the same generosity of spirit that you've always shown me. So, I'm gonna miss you. Till we're together again, in February. Have a happy Christmas. Thank you. Thank you for being my friend".

This is that final breakfast show:  

Sundays Only

No, Maigret isn't making a return to the BBC

Two months later Terry was back! Kicking off on 14 February 2010 was Weekend Wogan, a live two-hour show from the BBC Radio Theatre going out in three-month blocks, giving Terry plenty of time off to do the grouting. "It'll be flexible, the producer coming in with emails as he always did, John Marsh reading the news and doing his wheezy chuckles, Janet and John stories... well I can only say it worked really well in the pilot. But you never know. You take the risk." The studio element didn't really seem to work, the intimacy was lost, and anyway it was all costing too much, so by the following year he was back in the studio at Western House, the show now independently produced by Wise Buddah. The weekend shows always featured live guests: for the first there was Sir Ian McKellen, Jamie Cullen and Norah Jones, for his last Il Divo and Anastacia.

This clip comes from the first show in 2010:

This second clip is from 17 July 2011:

Terry's final show was on 8 November last year. The following week the BBC issues a press release advising that Terry is having to pull out of presenting Children in Need. He is quoted as saying: "So, here we are on the 36th edition of Children in Need, every one of which I've been proud to present since it started in 1980, and for the first time, I won't be there, to cheer you on with word and gesture to another record-breaking year. The show will go on, bigger and better than ever, in the hands of my friends, Grimmy, Fearne, Rochelle and Tess."

Last Sunday morning the world woke to the news that Sir Terry had passed away.

Terry was always modest about his broadcasting success. He'd have been embarrassed by all the plaudits heaped on him this week, but more than a little chuffed. He put it all down to his innate laziness and a whole heap of luck.

"Life turns on an instant, and everything changes on a single throw; if I hadn't answered the ad in the Irish paper for announcers; if I'd been sensible and accepted that I didn't have the qualifications required; if I hadn't lied about a dentist's appointment, or the bank manager had refused to give me time off and I hadn't attended the audition; if RTE hadn't given me the job; if Mark White had thrown my back-to-front tape into the wastepaper basket when I applied to the BBC ... So may lucky breaks - and if only one had failed, a different life. And people think I'm being falsely modest when I put it down to luck!"

Sir Terry Wogan 1938-2016

Quotes come from Is It Me? (BBC 2000), Mustn't Grumble (Orion 2006), Radio Times issues dated 16 August 2008 and 13 February 2010.