Wogan

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For other uses, see Wogan (disambiguation).

Wogan was a chat show on British television, hosted by Terry Wogan. It followed the format of a series broadcast in 1980 entitled What's On Wogan?, which failed to gather viewers. The Wogan show was initially broadcast on Tuesday evenings on BBC1 in 1981 and from 1982 to 1984, it moved into the Parkinson slot on Saturday nights. From here, it was moved to weekday evenings at 7pm, where it remained, three nights per week, from 1985 to 1992. It was replaced by the soap opera Eldorado.

The show was broadcast live from BBC Television Theatre in Shepherd's Bush, London.

[edit] Guest hosts

When Wogan himself was unavailable to host the show, guest presenters were brought in, with Selina Scott being the first stand-in in 1985. Others included Kenneth Williams (in 1986), Ben Elton (in 1989), Selina Scott (again in 1990), Jonathan Ross (in 1991), Gloria Hunniford (in 1991), Felicity Kendall, Esther Rantzen and Bruce Forsyth. The most successful stand in was Sue Lawley who became the most frequent replacement for the host and indeed for some time was Terry's 'official' stand in. When Lawley gained her own prime time chat show on BBC1 in 1989, other celebrities again took it in terms to stand in for Terry.

[edit] Notable interviews

A number of interviews on the show are well-remembered, and have featured on compilation clip shows. Some examples include:

  • Ronnie Barker announcing his retirement from showbusiness in 1988.
  • Raquel Welch appeared on the original Saturday night show, but was angered before the interview began when the producers refused to show a clip of her exercise video, which she was promoting. This led to a very taciturn interview with Terry, where at one point she feigned to forget his name.
  • Patti Davis, daughter of Ronald Reagan got into a heated argument with Wogan when he continually interrupted her and refused to allow her to make a point. She told him later in the interview that she was extremely angry at his behaviour.
  • Joan Collins was often announced as a potential guest, but always seemed to cancel at short notice, giving rise to media speculation that she was avoiding appearing on the show. When a special Christmas Day edition of the show featuring the cast of Dynasty was broadcast, Collins again refused to appear. Eventually, in the late 1980's, she did appear, in a special programme, as the sole guest. However, a subsequent appearance to promote her first novel, led to an extremely irritated exchange with the host, confirming perhaps that all was not well between the two. She did not appear again.
  • The appearance of an awkward Anne Bancroft, who admitted to her dislike of chat shows, and appeared before the audience counting up to ten in order to calm her nerves.
  • David Icke appearing on the show wearing a turquoise-coloured shell suit, and claiming to be "a son of the Godhead".
  • Vivienne Westwood appearing on the show when it was being guest hosted by Sue Lawley, and displaying her latest medically-inspired collection. When the audience collapsed into laughter, Westwood told Lawley that if they didn't stop laughing, she'd tell the models to stop coming out.
  • George Best appearing on the show in September 1990 extremely drunk, and needing to be escorted off set.
  • David Bowie refusing to co-operate during an interview. As Wogan put it, he "would not speak ... or at least not sensibly ... he will never know how close he came to a slap on live television". Most notably, Wogan asked Bowie (appearing with Tin Machine) "I suppose that's not a real guitar." to which Bowie countered "No Terry, it's my lunch". Part of Bowie's displeasure was that BBC policy forced him to mime "You Belong in Rock 'n' Roll" instead of singing live.
  • Chevy Chase remaining silent through his interview.
  • Geoffrey Boycott talking about his bank account, which was "a proper one, not like Ken Dodd's". Dodd was waiting in the wings to come on next.