Listening to Wogan

At risk of turning this blog into a tribute site for deceased celebrities, I feel that I must make mention of the death of Terry Wogan this morning at the age of 77. My fondness for him stems from listening to his Radio 2 breakfast show in the 1970s with my Dad, in the car in the daily school run. My Dad thought he was very funny and I also enjoyed his humour. On his return to Radio 2 in the late 1980s I resumed listening. He always made his listeners feel as if they were part of the show, which was very clever of him. I remember him once chastising his regular listeners because he claimed that when he was on holiday they had run rings round his stand-in (I think it was Ed Stewart) and made him give away a whole month's prizes in a week. His "handovers" to Jimmy Young in the 1980s were often very funny as they traded jokes and insults. His listeners used to send in limericks which were clearly going to end very rudely but he would stop after the second or third line. And his Janet and John stories were hilarious, told in the style of the old storybooks but with the hapless husband John always getting himself into a pickle due to unintended double entendres, and getting a row from his angry wife Janet. 

He also once told a joke which I found so funny that I was driving along in my car laughing helplessly; I had never heard it before and it really appealed to me. This may not be so funny to others, since humour is down to personal taste, but I shall attempt to relate it here.

There were once three men sitting in a railway carriage and they struck up a conversation, which turned to amusing slips of the tongue that they had made.

The first man said, "I once went into a clothes shop and I meant to say to the sales girl, 'Have you got a vest?' But instead I accidentally said 'Have you got a chest?'"

The second man said "I once went into a restaurant and I meant to ask for some grilled cheese, but I accidentally asked for some 'chilled grease!'"

The third man said, "Yes I know what you mean - I was recently having breakfast with my wife and I meant to say, 'Please will you pass me the jam' but instead I said, 'You've ruined my life you horrible old bag!'"

It still makes me smile. RIP Sir Terry!