GCSE Weekly Read 3
Two extracts from the Telegraph website’s obituary of broadcaster Sir Terry Wogan who died on January 31 2016.
See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/12132242/Sir-Terry-Wogan-obituary.html if you wish to read
the full text.
Extract 1:
Sir Terry Wogan - obituary
Broadcasting superstar whose effortless good humour made audiences feel better about themselves
Sir Terry Wogan, who has died aged 77, was the most popular and best-loved broadcaster in Britain for more than
three decades, confecting a middlebrow, old-fashioned brand of gentle Irish whimsy that barely concealed his
forthright and often antagonistic views about the BBC and the people who run it.
For Wogan’s wit and wisdom worked against the grain of the organisation that had plucked him from obscurity in
Dublin, where he had read the radio news and announced the programmes, and magicked him into a broadcasting
superstar._______________________________________________________________________________________
Extract 2:
He had co-hosted the BBC’s annual Children in Need charity telethon since 1980 and every year assailed the entries
while presenting the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual ordeal that he likened to “a numbing of the frontal lobes”.
He also compèred Come Dancing, Miss World, Do The Right Thing and Auntie’s Bloomers.
His listeners liked to be known collectively as TOGS (Terry’s Old Geezers [or Gals]), with subgroups dividing into
IDIOTS (I Dream Incessantly of Terry Society), TWITS (Terry Wogan Is Tops Society) and, most improbably,
TWINKLETOES (Terry Wogan Is Not Kinky Like Everyone Thinks Or Everyone Says).
Michael Terence Wogan was born on August 3 1938 in Limerick, Ireland’s third largest town, where his father was a
grocer. The family were lower middle class Catholics with neither car nor telephone. But they did possess a radio set,
and young Terry grew up listening to the classic programmes of the 1950s on the BBC’s Light Programme, such as
The Goons and Workers’ Playtime. Towards the end of the decade, as he later recalled with affection, he first heard
Elvis Presley.
After Ferrybank prep school, run by Salesian nuns, he attended Crescent College, Limerick, and later (after a family
move to Dublin) Belvedere College, both Jesuit-run; he was regularly and soundly thrashed with a leather strap for
the non-observance of Lenten Regulations and thinking impure thoughts, which he endeavoured to suppress by
becoming an enthusiastic rugby player.
At Belvedere he and his young brother Brian starred in Gilbert and Sullivan productions, an experience that led to his
joining the Rathmines and Rathgar Musical and Dramatic Society and appearances in shows like Naughty Marietta
and Bitter Sweet at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre. He also sang as an extra in productions by the Dublin Grand Opera
Society.
On leaving school Wogan joined the Royal Bank of Ireland – the republic’s smallest – as a £5-a-week clerk, first at the
branch in Cornmarket in the oldest part of Dublin, and later at the Phibsborough branch near the cattle market. The
hours were short and his duties not onerous: sorting florins from half-crowns, exchanging soiled banknotes for new
ones, and knotting and sealing lodgement dockets; nevertheless, after four years the life palled.
When he spotted a newspaper advertisement for announcers at Radio Éireann, the Irish national broadcaster, in
1963 he applied – along with nearly 10,000 others – and was astonished to be offered a four-week evening training
course to learn the basics of broadcasting. After passing an audition reading out the fatstock prices, he was offered a
full-time post and resigned his bank job.
As well as reading the news, Wogan presented a hospitals request show and commentated on the funeral of the
second president of Ireland, Sean O’Kelly, and, in June 1963, the visit to Ireland of the young American president
John F Kennedy. When the fledgling Irish television service RTÉ recruited newsreaders, Wogan was hired to present
the main half-hour bulletins. He once struggled to contain a nosebleed on air, to the amusement of the elderly
Special Branch man, armed with a Smith and Wesson revolver, who guarded the studio on the other side of a locked
door.

In Extract 1, paragraph 1, what is meant by the phrase ‘forthright and antagonistic’ that describes Wogan’s
brand of ‘whimsy’ (humour)? What does this phrase suggest to you about Wogan’s feelings about ‘the BBC
and the people who run it’?

Choose a metaphorical phrase from paragraph 2 (begins ‘Wogan’s wit’…) and explain why you think the
writer has used it – what sort of effect or image is being created?

In Extract 2, paragraph 1, what does Wogan’s comment ‘a numbing of the frontal lobes’ tell you about his
opinion of the Eurovision Song Contest?

Explain how each of the acronyms to describe the ‘subgroups’ of Terry’s listeners reflects his sense of
humour.

List four facts about Terry’s early childhood and schooldays that you think may have inspired him to pursue
a career in entertainment.

From Extract 2 paragraph 6, explain the definition of the adjective ‘onerous’ and the verb ‘palled’. You may
need to look these up, and be careful, because ‘palled’ has more than one meaning – choose the one that
you think makes sense in the sentence.

The purpose of an obituary is to inform readers of someone’s death and to commemorate their life.
Commemorate = mark or celebrate (an event or person) by doing or producing something. What aspects of
Terry Wogan’s personality do you think this obituary focuses on the most? Do you think the writer’s
personal opinion of Terry Wogan is evident in this obituary, and if so, where?